And The Story Goes On Forever
by TimeLordPrime
Summary: This is the continuing story of Sarah Jane Smith after Clyde and Rani leave to go to college. Now she is left to save the world all by herself yet again with only her daughter Sky to help her. That may soon change though as Rani begins to act strangely after being kidnapped by a familiar foe of Sarah Jane's. What's happened to Rani, and what horrible secret lies in her past?
1. Chapter 1

AND THE STORY GOES ON . . . FOREVER: THE CONTINUING STORY OF SARAH JANE SMITH

CHAPTER 1

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**This series is set in my War of the Guardians universe, and the first chapter takes place after the storyline begun in The Adventures of Rose Tyler, Time Lady Chapter 69 and after the upcoming Sarah Jane story in It's Better With Two.**

It was just another ordinary day for Sarah Jane Smith. It was only noon, and she had already had a long, eventful day. She had stopped two alien invasions, gave a woman who was complaining about werewolves the number of Martha Jones, and helped Captain Jack Harkness to identify several of the alien artifacts that were soon to be placed within the rebuilt Torchwood archives once their new headquarters was finished.

She smiled to herself now as she wondered what the rest of the day might bring. She didn't have too long to find out.

"Sarah Jane, I have a report of an alien presence at Park Vale Comprehensive School. A young woman who fits the description of Rani Chandra has been spotted there along with what appears to be two Slabs. The Slabs seem to have made her their prisoner and were seen to be escorting her into the school against her will," Mr. Smith, Sarah Jane's sentient Xylok computer that lived in her attic, suddenly reported.

"What's Rani doing there? She's supposed to be at Oxford University with Luke and Clyde," Sarah Jane asked in a worried tone.

Rani had graduated from Park Vale and was now attending Oxford with her two friends. She still came to visit Sarah Jane from time to time though along with Luke and Clyde, and sometimes they still helped her with her alien problems when they could. She knew that Sarah Jane couldn't do it all by herself after all, and Sky could only help so much.

"I have received no reports that indicate why Rani is there. It does seem that she is not there voluntarily however," Mr. Smith replied.

"I have to get there immediately then. Sky may be in danger too depending on what the Slabs want. I just hope that Rani hasn't been dragged into this because of her association with me," Sarah Jane worried.

"Do you wish me to notify anyone else to help? I can try to reach Luke and Clyde assuming that they have not been captured as well by whoever has employed the Slabs. I could also contact the Doctor, Rose Tyler, Donna Noble, Captain Jack Harkness, or Amy Pond and Selene," Mr. Smith offered.

"Try contacting everyone. I may need all of the help that I can get. Those Slabs could be working for anyone," Sarah Jane answered.

Sarah Jane knew full well that everyone that she knew was probably too busy to even answer their phone much less able to find the time to come and help her. It was probably all up to her to save Rani and possibly Sky and all of the students and staff at the school from whatever was going on there.

That was the way most of her adventures usually went after all, and she was fine with that. She had long ago gotten used to saving the world all by herself. She had been doing it off and on ever since the Doctor had left her on Earth for the last time after all.

Sarah got into her car and quickly drove to the school. Once she arrived there, she noticed that several UNIT soldiers were there already. She could see that they were already preventing the general public from entering and had cordoned the entire school off. She needed to get permission from someone in charge in order to get in quickly. She just hoped that whoever was there would be someone that she knew. She could always sneak past them of course, but doing that would take time that she might not have.

She quickly saw Martha Jones there and sighed in relief. She wasn't always sure of getting ahold of someone who she could work with or who she could trust. The UNIT of today was not like the one that she had dealt with in the past after all, and their methods and ways of doing things didn't always seem right to her.

"Sarah Jane, it's nice to see you again!" Martha said with a warm smile as Sarah Jane attracted her attention.

"Martha, I need to get in there quickly. My daughter goes to school there, and I have reason to believe that my friend Rani is also in there and being held hostage by the two Slabs that went inside," Sarah Jane hurriedly explained.

Martha smiled and shook her head as she said, "Why am I not surprised that you already know as much as we do? Sure, you can go in. I'll take you in myself so that there are no problems. To be honest, I wanted an excuse to go in there anyway. I hate waiting out here when all the action is going on in there."

"Being with the Doctor never does leave you, does it?" Sarah Jane said with a grin as she began to follow Martha through the cordon and up to the entrance of the school.

"No, it doesn't. Once you get used to this kind of life, you just can't let it go ever. I don't have to explain that to you though," Martha said as she flashed her ID badge to the UNIT soldiers guarding the entrance to the school.

"No, I understand that better than anyone. So you really don't know anything else about what's going on here?" Sarah Jane asked as soon as the two of them had entered the building.

"I'm afraid not, no. I wish that I could tell you more, especially with Rani and Sky in there," Martha said sympathetically.

"That's okay. I'll just have to do what I usually do in situations like this: improvise," Sarah Jane said.

Both of them looked at each other then as they realized exactly who Sarah Jane had just sounded like.

"Don't even say a word, Martha," Sarah Jane said with a groan as Martha struggled not to laugh.

The two women eventually reached Sky's classroom, and Sarah Jane was relieved to see that Rani and the Slabs were not there. Sky left the room immediately to join her mother as Martha quietly signaled the UNIT soldiers guarding the students in the room that it was okay for her to leave.

"I've heard that Rani's here. Do you think that she's alright?" Sky asked in breathless excitement.

"I don't know, Sky. I certainly hope so," Sarah Jane replied as the three of them began to walk down the hall as they searched for the Slabs.

"I can't understand why she would be here unless they knew that she used to help you," Sky said as she thought out loud.

"I certainly hope that's not the case. It may be because her father is the head teacher of the school. Maybe they're using her to get to him for some reason," Sarah Jane said.

"Why would the Slabs or whoever they're working for be interested in the head teacher of a school though?" Martha asked.

"I guess we'll soon find out what they're here about because I can hear Rani's voice up ahead," Sarah Jane said.

The three of them stopped and slowly inched forward as they looked for any signs of the killer androids' presence there. They could hear Rani's voice getting louder and louder now, and they could soon hear her father, Haresh, speaking as well.

"I already told you, Dad. These androids aren't going to let either one of us go until they get what they came here for. They want to know the exact location of a student who's attending here now. Someone called Henry Barnes. I don't know why they want him for, but they won't leave here until they find him," Rani explained.

"I haven't heard them say a word since they brought you in here so how do you know any of this?" Haresh asked.

"They don't speak .Their employer is the one who told me about it when they brought me to her after they first kidnapped me out of my dorm room at the University," Rani said.

"Did they hurt you?" Haresh asked in concern.

"No, not yet but if they don't get what their employer wants, I'm sure that they will," Rani said.

"So these things are machines you said?" Haresh asked as he sounded like he was struggling to understand what was going on.

He knew about the existence of aliens of course, but their world was still an unknown one to him. Furthermore, he had always wanted it to stay that way. He had no idea that his daughter already knew more about aliens than he could possibly imagine from her many adventures with Sarah Jane.

"Yes, they're androids. They work for a woman named Mrs. Wormwood," Rani answered.

Sarah Jane stiffened at the sound of that name. She was one of an alien race called the Bane, and she had created Sarah Jane's son, Luke, to help her destroy the human race. Luckily, Luke had been more interested from the start in being a normal human boy than in helping the Bane. The last she had seen of Mrs. Wormwood was when she had been lost in another dimension with a Sontaran Commander named Kaagh.

"She's the alien that you said that they worked for then?" Haresh asked as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

"Yes, she is. I have no idea what she wants with that boy, but I'm sure that it's nothing good," Rani said.

"I can't just give this boy up to these things! They could do who knows what to him!" Haresh protested.

"I don't want you to do it either. If you don't though, they've been ordered to kill both of us and search this office for the information that they want anyway," Rani warned.

Sarah Jane decided that she had waited long enough. She didn't want Haresh to find out the truth about her, but she had no other choice. She pulled out her sonic lipstick and started to aim it at the two Slabs, but Martha shook her head at her. Martha knew that Sarah Jane valued her secrets after all, and she decided that she would take care of this one. She owed all Slabs in general one for terrorizing her on her first adventure with the Doctor anyway.

Martha pulled out a specially designed sonic device given to her by Donna and used it to fry the circuits of the two androids. The two Slabs fell over and stopped moving immediately as they were permanently put out of commission.

"No! That's only going to make things worse. She said if anything happened to those two that she was going to send more," Rani said upset.

"How many more?" Sarah Jane asked as a feeling of sudden dread passed over her.

"Dr. Jones! There's a whole army of androids suddenly appearing out of nowhere! They're surrounding the entire building!" one of the UNIT soldiers called out to Martha over her communicator.

"They'll continue to keep coming too until I find the boy. Right now, they're programmed only to stun and not to kill. That could change on a moment's notice, however," Mrs. Wormwood threatened as she stepped around a corner accompanied by two of the Slabs on either side of her.

"Why do you want him so badly for? What possible interest could he be to you?" Sarah Jane asked.

"He is Luke's successor. I created him to serve me and to help restore me to favor with the Bane. He escaped from me, however, and used his intelligence to create a new identity for himself so that he could live life as a normal child. I have no idea why he should wish to do that though when he could be so much more. He could help me to conquer this miserable planet for the Bane and then stand by my side as I retake my rightful place among them afterwards for handing them the human race," Mrs. Wormwood said.

"He fled because he's a child and not a weapon! It also might just be your winning personality. It just seems to drive everyone away from you. I can't imagine why," Sarah Jane said sarcastically.

"Bring me the child, Miss Smith, or I will have my androids raze this school and everyone in it to the ground. This is your final warning!" Mrs. Wormwood said.

"I'll take you to him," Rani suddenly blurted out.

"Rani, no!" Haresh said.

"I have to, Dad. I can't let everyone else die," Rani said.

"Rani, she's going to use him to try to take over humanity. You can't let her do it," Sarah Jane warned.

"I knew if I pressed you long enough that one of you would eventually give in. Lead the way, Miss Chandra. Slabs, keep the rest of them here," Mrs. Wormwood ordered.

Mrs. Wormwood left her Slabs there to keep Sarah Jane, Martha, Sky, and Haresh from leaving as she went off alone with Rani with a gun pointed to her back.

"Rani!" Haresh screamed in anguish as Rani disappeared from sight.

"So where is he?" Mrs. Wormwood asked impatiently after the two of them had walking past classroom after classroom for several minutes, and it seemed as if they had reached a dead end.

"I have no idea," Rani said in a calm, almost happy voice. She acted as if she were totally in control of the whole situation now.

"What?! You lied! How dare you?!" Mrs. Wormwood said in a fit of rage.

Rani suddenly spun around with an evil grin on her face as she said, "You know you're really so easy to fool. You have such a pathetic excuse for a mind after all."

"That's it. You're going to die now!" Mrs. Wormwood threatened as she pulled the trigger on her gun.

Nothing happened, and Mrs. Wormwood looked completely shocked. She tried again and again to pull the trigger, but nothing would come out.

"Aw! You little gun not working? What a shame! It seems that someone had a small handheld device in their pocket that they whipped up on the spur of the moment that slowly drained the energy from your gun over time from a distance. I'm afraid that it's made your gun into nothing more than an over-glorified paperweight now," Rani said as she kicked the gun out of Mrs. Wormwood's hand.

"Who are you? You're not the Rani that I knew," Mrs. Wormwood said with fear in her voice.

"No, I'm not. I'm so much better than that pathetic waste of space ever was. You see I'm the real deal while she was nothing more than a copy. It seems that I've spent quite a while on this planet as her. It was much longer than I would have expected. Do you know that she actually liked being human and wanted to become, of all things, a journalist?! Can you imagine? What you said earlier about why would the boy want a normal life when he could be so much more? I wholeheartedly agree. I am so much more now than she ever was. I am no longer Rani Chandra now. I am Kali!" Rani shouted in a voice oozing with pure hatred.

"You've lost your mind! Kali died centuries ago after the Time Lords executed her for attempting to destroy an entire planet just because one of its inhabitants insulted her!" Mrs. Wormwood said in disbelief.

"They thought that they killed me, but I used my superior mind to switch brains with someone else at the last minute. I actually lucked out with that deal. She was much younger than I was, and I gained all of her regenerations, almost a complete life cycle of them. I then used the Chameleon Arch to hide from the Time Lords on Earth as the girl that you came to know and loath. Believe me, I agree with you in your low opinion of her. I'm so glad that she's history, and now so are you," Rani said with a sneer.

Mrs. Wormwood felt Rani invading her thoughts and taking over her mind. She realized in terror that she was going to kill her.

"Kneel before me!" Rani shouted.

The Time Lady began to laugh as Mrs. Wormwood knelt before her on the ground against her will. She then reached out and began to attack her mind with her mental powers. Mrs. Wormwood began to scream in incredible pain as Rani began shutting her brain down slowly one piece at a time.

"No! Please!" Mrs. Wormwood begged.

"You want mercy? Do you honestly expect me to grant you of all people mercy?" Rani asked with a smirk on her face.

"Please don't!" Mrs. Wormwood cried out in soul crushing agony.

Rani's expression seemed to change then, and a terrible sadness came over her face. She was now overburdened with guilt and knew that what she was doing was wrong. This was not who she wanted to be! She was not Kali anymore. She was Rani Chandra, and this was her life now!

Rani let go of Mrs. Wormwood's mind and fixed it back to its previous condition wherever she had damaged it as she allowed her back full control of her body once more.

"I'm so sorry! That wasn't me. Go and take your androids with you. Please just go before she regains control again," Rani pleaded with Mrs. Wormwood.

Mrs. Wormwood nodded and ordered the Slabs to leave with her. She wasn't going to take a chance of Rani changing her mind.

Before she left, Mrs. Wormwood turned around for just a moment and said in a heartfelt voice, "I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Rani said to the Bane's rapidly retreating back.

_This is impossible. You should no longer exist! You opened the watch and freed me once the Slabs were close to capturing you. You should be gone forever!_ Kali protested inside of Rani's mind.

_You know what, Kali? It's time that you learned something. Sometimes things don't always go your way. Sometimes life just sucks! I know mine is certainly no barrel full of monkeys right now._ Rani said sadly back to her.

_You can't retain control forever. Mine is the superior intellect. Sooner or later I will triumph, and then I will drive you out forever. You can't win, Rani._ Kali promised as she filled Rani's mind with laughter.

_I can certainly try. This is my life now. They're my friends and my family. I'm keeping them, Kali. I'm going to win because I have something worth fighting for! _Rani promised.

At the moment, Haresh came running up to her and asked, "Are you okay, Rani?"

"I'm fine, Dad. Everything's fine now. She decided to cut her loses and leave when she found out that I was just bluffing with her. I had no more idea where the boy was than she did," Rani said.

"That doesn't sound like her. Are you sure that there wasn't more to it than that, Rani?" Sarah Jane asked suspiciously.

"That's all, Sarah Jane. I think that she just decided that she had enough and that it just wasn't worth the trouble anymore," Rani lied.

"How did she know you and Rani anyway, Sarah Jane?" Haresh asked.

"She learned about both of them due to their connection to you no doubt, Mr. Chandra. She was looking for anyone that she could use to convince you to give her the boy. Sarah Jane probably knew about her from talking with us in the past as she did research for one story after another. You can pick up a lot of things when you hang around our group long enough," Martha said as she tried to cover for Sarah Jane.

"Yes, of course," Haresh said but he sounded unconvinced.

"Are you sure that you're okay, Rani?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I'm fine, Sarah Jane. I've never felt better," Rani said with a pleased smile on her face.

She was going to beat Kali and lock her away forever. She was not going to let her take everything away from her that she had fought so long and hard for.

"Dr. Jones, we searched for the boy that the androids were after, and we could not find him. His teacher said that he was out today. He called in sick," one of the UNIT soldiers reported to Martha.

"It seems that he expected something like this might happen today," Sarah Jane deduced.

"We have to find that boy, Sarah Jane. We can't let him fall into her hands. I'm going to need his address, Mr. Chandra," Martha said.

Haresh went to look the information up, but Sarah Jane suspected already that it was going to turn out to be a fake address. She was sure that someone as intelligent as this boy must surely be would have already covered his tracks so that no one could find him. It didn't mean that she wouldn't try though.

Mrs. Wormwood reported to Madame Kovarian not long after her escape and told her that she had failed to recapture the boy and use him as a way to regain control of the Bane for the Silence. Kovarian was needless to say not pleased.

"You idiot! I gave you an army of Slabs, and you still fled before one girl. I rescued you from that nightmarish dimension for the express purpose of adding the Bane and their technology to our cause, and you couldn't even do that! Maybe I should just finish the job that she started. What do you think?" Kovarian said as several members of the Silence began to surround Mrs. Wormwood.

"I can still deliver the boy to you, Madame Kovarian. I just need more time. If you give me another chance, I will find him and use him to regain favor with the Bane once more. I promise," Mrs. Wormwood said nervously as she stared at the Silence surrounding her.

"One last chance, and that's all," Kovarian said.

"I have to admit that this girl intrigues me. She could have killed you with the power of her mind and yet chose not to. You said that she seemed to be at war with herself. Maybe I could use that situation to my advantage somehow. I will have to think long and hard on how best to approach this. If we could bring her to our side, we could use her to kill the Doctor from a distance; and no one would ever suspect her of planning anything because she is one of his allies. It would be perfect," Kovarian said with an evil smile.

**Next: Rani tries to go back to her normal life as she acts like nothing has changed. That's easier said than done though when Kali is constantly attempting to regain control from her at every turn. Meanwhile Sarah Jane tries to locate the boy that Mrs. Wormwood wanted before she does. Can she succeed, or will Mrs. Wormwood use him to hand control of the Bane and possibly the Earth itself over to the Silence?**


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

As Sarah Jane had already expected, the address that the boy that she was looking for, Henry Barnes, had given to the school was fake so she had to try to find him using her skills as a journalist. With Haresh's permission, she briefly interviewed Henry's teacher and his classmates as she tried to gather information about the boy that might help her in locating him.

It turned out that Henry was very shy and kept to himself which Sarah Jane could understand as he was probably terrified that someone would find out that he was not a normal child if he associated with other people too much. She did find out though after talking to enough people that there was a girl who Henry liked. He would always talk to her even when he didn't with anyone else. Sarah Jane smiled as she realized just how like a regular child Henry seemed to be despite Mrs. Wormwood's best efforts. She was not going to let her ruin his life any further if she could help it.

Sarah Jane found out that the girl who Henry was friends with had also stayed out sick too. She knew that this couldn't be a coincidence. She found out that the girl's name was Abby Brewster, and she also found out her address. She decided to check out the address in the hope that it was real.

As she found Abby's house and was about to walk up her driveway to knock on the door, she suddenly felt a presence behind her. She turned to see a woman who looked like Rose Tyler, but yet she knew instinctively that she was not. This woman's body language was slightly different although she seemed to have the same kind, benevolent aura around her that the real Rose always did.

"Who are you?" Sarah Jane asked.

"You're just as good as I've heard, Miss Smith. You knew right away that I wasn't your Rose. I like that. My name was originally Arkytior, but I go by the name of Ishtar these days to avoid confusion," Ishtar said.

"You're the Rose of the previous universe, aren't you? Rose told me about you once," Sarah Jane correctly guessed.

"That's right. These days I stay busy by carrying out the role of the White Guardian. I hate to bother you because what you're doing is very important, but I just had to come and warn you about something," Ishtar said.

"Is this a threat?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Oh, no no! I'm a lot like your Rose in that I don't do things like that. I'm a pretty peaceful girl most of the time. I came to talk to you about Rani Chandra. She needs your help, Sarah Jane. She's going through a terrible time now, and she's trying to handle it all by herself. She can't though. She'll need your support in order to win the battle that's going on inside of her," Ishtar said.

"I knew that something was wrong with her! She hasn't been acting right since she had her mind taken over by Eldrad. What's happened to her?" Sarah Jane asked in concern. She thought of Rani as just like one of her own children and would do anything for her.

"Eldrad's mind control started it by freeing a long buried consciousness from Rani's mind and then her kidnapping by the Slabs did the rest. Both of those traumatic events made her start to remember, Sarah Jane. She remembered her past, and she opened the fob watch that she always carried with her all of her life," Ishtar explained.

"Rani's a Time Lady?!" Sarah Jane asked in complete surprise.

"Yes, and not just any Time Lady. Part of her is one of the most ruthless Time Lords that has ever lived," Ishtar said.

"Part of her?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Right now, there is a war going on for control of Rani's body. Rani already knows about the evil Time Lady inside of her, but what she doesn't know is that she has a hidden ally. Buried deep in her mind is the consciousness of another Time Lady who could help Rani if she just knew that she existed. Rani has to wake her up first, however. She's been buried so deep for so long that she's in a deep sleep and knows nothing about what's going on around her anymore. You have to tell her about this and help her. If you don't, Rani may fall under Kali's control forever; and the entire universe will then be in great danger if this happens because Kali has incredible mental powers of telepathy, telekinesis, and mind control," Ishtar warned.

"Who is the other Time Lady, and what's she doing inside of Rani's mind?" Sarah Jane asked.

"She's the exact opposite of Kali. She's a gentle, kind soul who would never hurt anyone. She was buried there long ago when Kali attempted to switch minds with her to avoid execution. Unknown even to Kali, the other Time Lady's mind was not put into Kali's body but was buried far underneath Kali's own mind instead. Her name is Annika and if Rani can find and free her then the two of them together might stand a chance of defeating Kali for good," Ishtar said.

"Annika sounds a little like Rani," Sarah Jane noted.

"She does, doesn't she?" Ishtar said with an enigmatic smile.

"Should I go help Rani right away then?" Sarah Jane asked.

"No, not yet. What you're doing here is very important also. You need to finish this up first. For the moment at least, Rani is in control, but that won't last forever. That's why I came to warn you. Well, that and I just wanted to meet you. I've been watching you all of your life, and you're just amazing. It's so nice to get the chance to talk to you at last. You wouldn't mind if I dropped by again sometime, would you?" Ishtar asked.

"No, of course not. I'd prefer it not to be when you're giving me dire warnings about my friends though," Sarah Jane said.

"Oh, next time it'll just be a friendly visit I promise. You're just as cool as I thought you'd be," Ishtar said happily.

"You're starting to remind me of the Doctor more than Rose now," Sarah Jane said with a grin.

"Well, there's no need to be insulting just because I brought you some bad news," Ishtar said in what Sarah Jane knew was a pretend pout. She found that she liked this woman already and felt that she could trust her.

"Is Rani going to be alright?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I honestly don't know. Her timeline is in a constant state of flux, and there's no way to tell for sure. I hope so though," Ishtar said.

"Thank you for telling me all of this. I'll do the best I can to help her," Sarah Jane assured her.

"I know you will. Oh and I would look up some old friends of yours from your days at UNIT. They may just provide you with some valuable assistance. Now that I've left you with some helpful hints that I hope don't stray too close to breaking the Laws of Time, I'll leave and go see what Bill's been up to. I have to constantly watch him to make sure that he hasn't been mucking about where he shouldn't be. He tends to do that sometimes even now on the missions that I give him. I'll see you around, Sarah Jane. I now return you to your regular programming," Ishtar said as she disappeared right before Sarah Jane's eyes.

Sarah Jane couldn't help but laugh for a minute even with the seriousness of the current situation. Ishtar was quite a character after all.

"Who was that, and where did she go to so quickly? Was she a ghost?" a young girl who looked to be the same age as Henry said.

"You saw her?" Sarah Jane asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I just saw both of you talking away for the last few minutes, and then she just vanished right in front of you. What's going on?" the girl asked in fear.

"You don't have to worry about her. She's very nice," Sarah Jane said as she tried to reassure her.

"Are you here to hurt Henry?" the girl asked in a low, scared voice.

"No. I'm here to help him. Someone else is out to hurt him, and I want to stop them," Sarah Jane said truthfully.

The girl studied Sarah Jane for a minute as if trying to see if she could trust her, and then she said, "He's in my house. I have him hidden in my room. My parents aren't home so the two of us have been hiding here all day."

"It's a good thing too. Someone came to the school today to capture him," Sarah Jane said.

"He was right! He said that he thought that someone had been following him. He kept seeing these strange people around everywhere that he went. He convinced me to stay out of school with him for the day and let him hide here with me. I thought at first that maybe it was his way of asking me out on a date because he's so shy, but he seemed too scared to be faking so I went along with it," the girl said.

"You're Abby then I take it?" Sarah Jane asked.

"How did you know that or how to find me?" Abby asked with sudden worry.

"I'm a journalist, Abby. I know how to find and follow leads on a story. I just hope that Mrs. Wormwood hasn't found out the same thing. She may be here at any moment. The two of you are in incredible danger from her. She wants Henry for her own purposes, and she won't stop until she gets him. Could both of you come with me? I can take you to some old friends of mine who will protect you until this whole business is over with," Sarah Jane said.

Abby hesitated for a moment and then nodded again as she said, "I'll just go inside and get him. I hope that I can convince him to come out though. He's very afraid."

"I'll wait here then. If I go in there, I might unnerve him," Sarah Jane said.

"That's probably a good idea. He's very jittery. He only ever talks to me in school. I've never seen anybody so afraid in my life," Abby said with a grin.

Abby raced inside to get Henry while Sarah Jane waited and tried not to look too conspicuous. She hoped that Henry didn't run when he heard that she was here, or she might never find him again.

While Sarah Jane waited on Henry to come out, Rani had gone back to the University. She had gotten several voice mails from Clyde and Luke wanting to know what had happened to her, and she had decided to tell them about it in person while leaving out the part about Kali. She soon found both of her friends and filled them in on as much of what had happened to her as she dared.

"Are you okay, Rani?" Clyde asked as he noticed the worried look on her face. He knew that something was wrong because she was usually so happy and carefree.

"I'm fine. Why do you keep asking me that?" Rani asked.

"You look upset that's why. If you'd like to talk about what happened to you, I'm here for you. As a friend," Clyde said.

"I'm fine," Rani repeated again.

"Are you sure?" Clyde said as he pressed her.

Rani suddenly erupted into anger, and her face became distorted with rage shocking Clyde as she shouted, "I told you that I'm fine! Leave me alone! If you ask me that question one more time, I'll break your arm! That's if I'm feeling merciful! I may decide to do more than that if you keep testing my patience!"

Clyde backed away from her in fear, and both he and Luke looked at her in shock. Rani had never, ever acted like that before no matter how angry she had gotten.

"What are you two gawking at? You'd think that no one had ever talked to you that way before. Why don't you go live in the real world for a while and wise up? Get away from me! Both of you! I have no need for either of you annoying little pests," Rani said with a snarl.

"Rani, what is wrong with you?" Luke asked.

"What did I tell you two about asking me questions?!" Rani asked in a violent rage.

She suddenly launched herself across the room and started to punch Luke in the face. She stopped herself just in time though as her face switched from one of anger to deep sadness and sorrow.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it. I would never hurt either of you. I'm sorry!" Rani apologized in tears.

"Rani, something's wrong with you. You need to talk to you parents or Sarah Jane about it. You've been acting very weird ever since that day that Eldrad took us over," Clyde said with his voice filled with deep concern for her.

Rani could hear Kali laughing inside of her mind as she lied to them by saying, "I'll do that. I'll talk to Sarah Jane about it as soon as I can."

"I certainly hope so. I don't want you to get expelled. If you do that to any of the teachers here, that's exactly what's going to happen," Clyde said.

_That's a very good idea. Thank you, Clyde._ Kali's voice said in Rani's mind.

_Stop this! Just leave me alone!_ Rani said back to her in her thoughts only to hear Kali's mocking laughter as her only answer.

Later on in the day as Rani tried to go back to her classes as if nothing had happened, Kali tried several times to get her to say something hateful to her classmates, her instructors, or even the head of the school. She had to use every ounce of willpower that she had to avoid another violent display like the one that she had had with Luke and Clyde earlier.

_You won't be able to do this forever, Rani. Just give up now, and let me have my body back. It's inevitable. Surrender while you still have your dignity and reputation intact._ Kali advised her in her mind.

_No! I won't just lie down and die. You'll hurt everyone that I care about if I do. I know you will._ Rani responded back to her in her thoughts.

Again her only response was Kali's laughter reverberating throughout her mind.

Sarah Jane smiled in relief as Abby brought out a young boy who she knew must be Henry. He looked at her in worry as he slowly walked up to her.

"Are you here to take me back? I'll go if you promise not to hurt Abby," Henry said.

"She's here to help you. I already told you that. How thick are you?" Abby said as she rolled her eyes at him.

"My name's Sarah Jane Smith, Henry. I'm not here to hurt anyone. I just want to take you to some friends of mine before Mrs. Wormwood finds you," Sarah Jane assured him.

"I believe her. I think that we can trust her," Abby said.

Henry looked between the two of them in momentary indecision, and then he nodded. Sarah Jane was grateful for Abby's help because she knew that he trusted her judgment and that she had been the one to finally get him to agree to come with her. It was obvious to her even now that Henry cared about Abby as much than just a friend.

Sarah Jane left Abby's parents a message telling them where she could be found and took the two of them to UNIT HQ. Martha Jones was there to greet them at the front entrance, and she immediately let them.

"So you're the little boy who caused all of the trouble at the school today. Lots of people have been looking for you. You're pretty popular lately," Martha said in a gentle voice with a smile on her face.

"I'm sorry about all of that. Sarah Jane told me what happened, and I never meant for it to. I thought that if I stayed out that they would give up looking for me for a while. I never thought that they would attack the school," Henry said.

"Mrs. Wormwood is very determined and dangerous. She's not going to give up that easily," Sarah Jane said.

"She's totally insane is what she is. She threatened to attack everyone in the school with her Slabs just to find you. We can't let that happen again. You and Abby are going to stay here for a while until we're sure that you're safe, Henry," Martha said.

"What about my parents? They'll get worried about me," Abby said.

"We've already made arrangements to bring them here too. I wouldn't want to split you up from your family," Martha said.

"That's a good idea. Mrs. Wormwood might go after them too in order to get to Henry through Abby," Sarah Jane said.

"She sounds like the type who would do something low down like that, yeah," Martha admitted.

"I'm sorry, Abby. I never meant to drag you and your parents into this. You were the only one that I knew that I could trust though," Henry said sadly.

"It's okay. I wouldn't have been able to sleep with you out there in danger somewhere," Abby said as she put her arm around him in comfort.

Sarah Jane and Martha smiled at each other as it was obvious to them how the two of them really felt about each other. It was at that moment that a woman's voice said, "Oh, that's just lovely. Two young people in love! I think that's just wonderful."

Sarah Jane turned to see Jo Jones standing there with a big grin on her face. Sarah Jane then returned her smile as she was very happy to see her. She hadn't seen her since that whole mess with the Shansheeth.

"Jo, how are you? What are you doing here? I would have thought that you'd be out traveling the world right now," Sarah Jane asked as she greeted Jo with a hug.

"I'm doing just fine. I decided to come here and pay my old friends at UNIT a visit. Well, I actually came to pay the Brigadier a visit. He's the only one left that I still know from the old days after all. Martha's very nice though. I like her," Jo said as she chatted away.

"The Brigadier's here?" Sarah Jane asked in surprise.

She knew that since he had grown older that the Brigadier rarely dealt with UNIT as much these days as he used to. He mostly just did occasional consulting work for them in Peru now.

"Yes, I've heard that he isn't here much anymore. I just happened to get lucky enough to find him here today. I was so glad too, or I wouldn't have known anyone. Now you've shown up. I guess my luck is holding out today. I wonder if the Doctor might decide to drop by too. I'd love to see him again," Jo said.

"I don't know. No one ever knows if or when the Doctor might show up," Sarah Jane said.

"That is so true! Most of the time the Doctor doesn't even know himself," Martha said with a grin as she broke into their conversation.

All three of them then broke out into hysterical laughter born out of long and painful experience with the Doctor then as Henry and Abby looked at them in confusion. They had no idea who the Doctor was or what was so funny.

"Laughter on a UNIT base? That wouldn't have been tolerated back in my day. We had more decorum back then," the Brigadier said with a smile on his face as he came slowly walking up to them.

"We were just talking about the Doctor, Alastair," Sarah Jane said as she gave him a warm smile.

"Oh, well that's alright then," the Brigadier said with a chuckle.

"It's so nice to see you again," Sarah Jane said as she hugged the Brigadier now too.

"It's always nice to see you, Miss Smith. I see that you've already delivered the boy that the Bane woman was looking for. You always were more efficient than all of my men at UNIT combined," the Brigadier said in praise of Sarah Jane.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Brigadier. I just got lucky," Sarah Jane said.

"I don't believe in luck, Miss Smith. Especially not when it comes to you," the Brigadier said.

"Do you all really think that the two of us are going to be safe here?" Henry asked.

"I certainly do, young man. UNIT has all of the latest weaponry, and we're ready for the Bane or the Slabs to try something. They won't get you here," the Brigadier said to him in a confident voice.

"Sarah Jane Smith! Oh, my! It is you, isn't it?" a very happy man said as he came running up to Sarah Jane.

The Brigadier rolled his eyes as he said, "Miss Smith, this is Professor Malcolm Taylor. He's UNIT's scientific advisor now."

"Yes, I've got the Doctor's old job now, and I couldn't be happier about it. The Doctor's one of my heroes, and so are you and Mrs. Jones and the Brigadier. I'm so happy I'm about to explode! I'm getting to meet three of my childhood heroes in one day. I can't believe it. First I meet the Doctor, then Rose Tyler, and now you. I can die a happy man now," Malcolm said as he almost jumped up and down in joy.

"It's very nice to meet you too, Professor. The Doctor and Rose have both told me about you," Sarah Jane said as she shook his hand.

"They did? They actually talked about me? Oh, now I can really die happy!" Malcolm said in unbelievable joy.

Sarah Jane laughed at the man as he continued to smile more than she'd ever seen anyone smile in her life. Apparently, he was UNIT's biggest fan. Now that she thought about it, it felt good to get some appreciation for her life's work. She was used to working in the shadows and never getting any credit for it. It was nice to have someone acknowledge it for a change even if they did go a bit overboard in their enthusiasm.

Several shouts began to rise up everywhere then as the UNIT soldiers started to spring into action, and Martha got a call on her communicator from someone that sounded very urgent from what little Sarah Jane could hear of it.

"We're under attack by the Slabs again. This time it isn't just them though. Mrs. Wormwood's brought in some reinforcements. There are Headless Monks out there too," Martha reported.

"The Silence. Mrs. Wormwood is working with the Silence now," Sarah Jane said.

"It's a good thing that I called in some reinforcements of our own then," Martha said with a huge grin.

Sarah Jane heard the sound of a TARDIS materializing and hoped for a moment that it might be the Doctor. She was somewhat disappointed when she recognized the TARDIS of Donna Noble instead.

As Donna stepped out she saw the look on Sarah Jane's face and said happily, "Oi! Wipe that look off your face, Reporter Girl! I may not be the Doctor, but I do have his memories and knowledge. They didn't call me the DoctorDonna for nothing you know."

"I didn't mean any offense. I just expected to see the Doctor. He's the one who usually shows up in times like these," Sarah Jane admitted.

"Well, I hope that you won't be too disappointed now that we're here. I've brought my team to help out, Sarah Jane. The Bad Wolves are here to save the day!" Donna said with a triumphant smile. For once, Donna was going to be the hero.

"Oh, my! Is that THE Donna Noble?" Malcolm asked in joy.

Sarah Jane began to laugh despite what was going on outside as she saw the look on Donna's face. Donna had no idea what she had just gotten herself into here.

**Next: Guest stars abound as Donna and the Bad Wolves help Sarah Jane to protect Henry and Abby from Mrs. Wormwood's minions. Also, more with Rani as Kali tries to make her find her long lost TARDIS for her.**


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

I do not own Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, or Star Wars, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

**This story takes place before Bad Wolves Chapter 34 because I want to make all of you Bad Wolves fans sweat about what's going to happen to Victoria.**

As UNIT was assaulted by an army of Slabs and Headless Monks, Rani was caught in the middle of a war of her own as Kali established more and more of a hold on her mind. She was now forcing Rani to skip a whole day of school in order to make her find something that was very important to her. She was searching desperately for it whatever it was, but she wouldn't tell her a thing about it.

"You're going to get me kicked out of school," Rani said out loud to Kali. Clyde and Luke were in class so she was free to talk out loud to her tormentor without having to raise their suspicions.

_Who cares? Once I succeed, I'm going to wipe you from my mind anyway. You can think of this as a fun little field trip that I've given you. I'm sure that you'll wind up being grateful to me that I've given you something to enjoy on one of your last days alive._ Kali said in Rani's mind.

"I won't help you. I'll just sit here and not move," Rani said.

A wave of pain suddenly shot through Rani's mind, and she sank to the floor in agony.

_I'll continue to do that until you learn to cooperate._ Kali threatened.

"Stop! I'll do what you want. Please just stop," Rani said in excruciating pain.

_Very good, Rani! Now you're learning. Obey my wishes, and you get to live a little longer. Disobey and there will be pain. So. Much. Pain!_ Kali promised in a hate filled voice.

"What do you want me to do?" Rani asked reluctantly.

_Where did you put the fob watch?_ Kali asked.

"It's in the pocket of my other jacket," Rani said.

_Good. Get it for me._ Kali ordered.

It was then as she went to get the watch that Rani realized that Kali didn't know where she had put the watch. She had to ask her. Kali couldn't read her mind! She had no idea what she was thinking unless she communicated it to her directly. Rani was determined to use that to her advantage somehow.

Rani found the watch and opened it as she looked at it sadly. To think that this little thing had been all that it had taken to totally change her life forever. She wished that she had smashed it into a thousand pieces the instant that she first thought that she had heard it start calling to her.

_Stop staring at it and open the back of it._ Kali ordered.

Rani opened the back of the watch and found what looked like a key there. She pulled it out of the watch and looked at it in curiosity.

"What is this?" Rani asked.

_It's the key to my TARDIS. Luckily for me, it can also be used to summon the TARDIS from wherever it is now to within a mile of my immediate area. Just push that triangular shaped button on the key to use it. I really should have invested in one with a remote control._ Kali answered.

Rani complied, and then the key began to glow in her hands. It felt warm to the touch.

_That shows that the TARDIS is somewhere nearby. The key will glow brighter and feel warmer the closer that you are to it. Follow it until you find it._ Kali instructed.

As Rani went outside to start to follow the trail to Kali's TARDIS, Clyde and Luke emerged from the closet where they had been hiding at all morning. They had been watching Rani this entire time while she seemingly talked to herself. They had both thought that she had lost her mind until they saw the glowing TARDIS key. Now they weren't so sure.

"I think Rani's in trouble. We have to follow her," Clyde said.

"Whatever it is seems to have control over Rani. You saw what it did to her when she didn't obey it. What if she sees us? She might be forced to try to kill us even though she won't want to," Luke said.

"We'll just have to take that chance. I have to save Rani. I can't let anything happen to her," Clyde said in an emotional voice.

Luke almost smiled because Clyde was letting his true feelings slip out now that his guard was down. He had been right! What he had always suspected about how Clyde really felt about Rani had been true all along. He wondered if Rani felt the same way about him.

Clyde and Luke began to slowly follow Rani as she walked across the campus holding the glowing key out in front of her. It started to grow brighter and brighter the further she walked and began to attract the attention of many passersby. Ignoring the strange looks that she received, Rani continued to walk on ahead as she followed the key to the TARDIS' location.

Unfortunately for her, Rani happened to come across one of her teachers, Mr. Cobb. He stopped her right in the middle of crossing the road to another part of the campus and started to yell at her.

"I thought that you were sick, Miss Chandra! It looks like you've made a remarkable recovery. If you think that I'm going to let you get away with such a blatant disregard for my class, then you're sadly mistaken," Mr. Cobb shouted.

"I am sick, Mr. Cobb," Rani said with a smile on her face.

"What?" Mr. Cobb asked confused.

"I am sick. You haven't seen me all day. You've heard from some of the other students that I have the flu and that I'm in bed sick," Rani said as she stared intently into his eyes.

"Yes, poor Rani's sick in bed. I hope that she's going to be okay," Mr. Cobb said in complete bewilderment.

"She'll be fine. Just go back to your classroom and forget all about this, Mr. Cobb. You haven't seen me," Rani ordered.

"Yes, I'll go back to my class. Poor Rani! She's so sick," Mr. Cobb said as he walked away from Rani in a daze.

Clyde and Luke saw all of this from behind a tree and looked at each other in amazement. Since when could Rani do that?

"She just did a Jedi Mind Trick," Clyde whispered with a huge grin on his face.

_That was fun, wasn't it? Admit it, Rani._ Kali said in Rani's mind.

_Yeah, it was. That doesn't mean that I like you any better though._ Rani replied in her thoughts.

_There's gratitude for you._ Kali thought to her with a mental snort of derision.

Rani knew that Kali hadn't allowed her to use her power to help her but to help herself instead but said nothing. She continued to follow the key as it began to grow so hot that she could barely hold it, and the light coming from it had become almost blinding.

Then she saw a large oak tree ahead that she had passed several times a day every day since she had come to school here. It couldn't be that, could it?

_That's it. Use the key. Open it._ Kali ordered.

Rani inserted the key into a small hole in the front of the tree and turned it. An entire section of the tree opened up, and Rani walked inside. Bright lights instantly switched on and revealed a magnificent Console Room.

Clyde and Luke knew instantly that this was a TARDIS and looked at each other in amazement. How did Rani get the key to a TARDIS?

Just before Rani closed the door to the TARDIS behind her with a switch on the console, Clyde and Luke came rushing inside. The TARDIS door shut behind them, and the two boys stared at Rani waiting for her to speak as she looked at them in shock.

"Why did you follow me here?" Rani asked finally.

"You've been acting crazy lately, Rani. I needed to know why. I thought that Eldrad had done something to you. Now I find out that you have a TARDIS. What's going on? Where did this come from?" Clyde asked as he pointed at the TARDIS.

"You shouldn't have come here, Clyde," Rani said in a worried voice.

"What are you talking about?" Clyde asked.

"You know you really are quite thick, aren't you? You've just trapped yourselves alone inside of this TARDIS with little old me. You're never getting out of here alive, Mr. Langer," Kali said in Rani's voice.

"Rani?" Clyde asked in an uncertain voice. She looked and sounded nothing like the Rani that he knew at that moment.

"Guess again, Mr. Langer. My name's Kali. Rani's not home right now," Kali said as she started to use her powers on Clyde and Luke.

Clyde and Luke fell to the floor with pain shooting through their minds as Kali started to bombard their brains with a massage barrage of information from her superior Time Lord mind that was too much for even Luke's advanced brain to comprehend all at once. This instant information overload started to cause their brains to start shutting down instantly as they screamed.

"No!" Rani shouted as she stopped the attack with the force of her will.

_What?_ Kali thought to herself with surprise as she suddenly found herself trapped in the back of Rani's mind as Rani regained control of herself once again.

"Are you two alright?" Rani asked Clyde and Luke as she helped them to stand up.

"What is going on here?" Clyde asked her in complete confusion.

"It's a long story," Rani said.

"We seem to have plenty of time since we're all playing hooky today in a TARDIS. Go ahead. Tell us everything, Rani. Uh, your other self isn't going to come back out anytime soon is she?" Clyde asked as he looked at her warily.

"I hope not," Rani said nervously.

"You'd better get explaining quickly then before she does," Clyde said.

Rani nodded and began to tell them the whole story of what had been happening to her lately while Clyde's eyes began to get wider and wider.

Back at UNIT HQ, the soldiers of UNIT could no longer keep the Headless Monks and Slabs completely out of the base anymore, and some of them began to break inside at last. Henry and Abby both ran to hide behind Sarah Jane in fear as they saw several Slabs suddenly start appearing only a few feet away from them now via transmat.

"Michelle, let's send some of those rejects from a biker bar packing," Donna said.

Michelle Jones, the former Sister of Mine of the Family of Blood, gestured at the small army of Slabs in front of her and trapped them inside of the Mirror Verse, the universe that the Doctor had once trapped her in that existed within the reflection of all mirrors. They would remain there until Michelle let them out again.

Sarah Jane looked at Michelle in amazement as she watched her in action. Martha had told her that she was the little girl in the Family of Blood who had almost killed her and the Doctor once. It was amazing even to someone who had seen as much as Sarah had how someone could turn from a foe to a friend like that. She had always believed that anyone was capable of redemption, but that story had still surprised her when she had heard about it. Thinking about Michelle's story gave her renewed hope that maybe it wasn't too late for her to save Rani. She couldn't stop worrying about her even in the middle of all of this carnage.

Victoria Collins, who was a Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform or Werewolf, tore several of the Slabs into pieces with her bare hands as she ripped them limb from limb in a savage feral attack. It felt good to her to cut loose like that every once in a while and not have to worry about hurting anyone.

Sarah kept well away from Victoria and unconsciously backed away from her anytime that she got too near to her. Donna noticed this and said, "She's one of the nicest people that you'll ever meet, Sarah. Don't worry about her."

Sarah Jane was still going to err on the side of caution though. Victoria might well be a very sweet person normally, but in this form she still had an bestial side to her that could be totally unpredictable. She had heard from Rose what a single bite or scratch from one of the Haemovariforms could do, and she didn't fancy risking either herself or the children getting infected by her even by accident.

Ileana and Katherine, the two vampires of the group, also had some fun with the Slabs as they cut loose on the hapless machines right alongside their friend Vicky. Abraham Van Helsing took the sword that he usually used to kill vampires with and killed what seemed to be the equally undead Headless Monks instead with it. Dorothy, the older version of Ace, meanwhile just used her Vortex powers to disintegrate both Slabs and Monks left and right.

Donna watched her group tear through Mrs. Wormwood's little invasion party with obvious delight as she used her sonic screwdriver to take down quite a few Slabs herself right alongside Sarah Jane who was using her sonic lipstick. The two of them made quite the team together Sarah Jane thought to herself as they both used their sonic devices to protect Henry and Abby as they kept the two children in between them in a protective circle that they had formed around them.

The Brigadier wasn't doing too bad himself as he kept firing five rounds rapid right into the heart of every Slab or Monk who got within ten feet of him or the children. He was determined to show the Silence that even in old age that he was still someone who couldn't be ignored in a fight.

Sarah Jane thought that it was remarkable how the Brigadier still seemed to have the same reflexes and accuracy that he had when she had first met him. He had trouble walking now, but his skills with a gun were still legendary and not to underestimated.

Jo meanwhile had gone with Malcolm into the safety of Donna's TARDIS as everything quickly fell apart around them. Sarah wondered to herself how much longer it would be before they might have to follow them. It seemed like even with the added help of the Bad Wolves that the armies of Mrs. Wormwood were still managing to rapidly take over the entire base all around them.

Then things grew worse as several Daleks and Cybermen started to appear as well and surround them. Dorothy couldn't resist making them explode by over exciting the molecules in their bodies. She smiled as she thought back to when she used to kill Daleks with a baseball bat. Good times!

"Miss Smith, take the children and get into Miss Noble's TARDIS now. It's no longer even remotely safe for them out here," the Brigadier said.

"You said that we'd be safe," Abby argued.

"I didn't know that Daleks and Cybermen would be showing up as well. That changes everything," the Brigadier admitted.

"Make that a rule of thumb in the future, Brigadier. Always take the Daleks and Cybermen into account whenever you're making any plans. You never know when they might decide to just show up out of the blue I always say. Even if you're just planning on going to have a nice relaxing day at the beach, always make allowances for the Daleks showing up somehow," a very familiar voice said from behind them.

"Doctor, not everyone is like you where they run into Daleks when they're heading to the bathroom," the unmistakable voice of Rose Tyler said.

"That only happened once! How was I to know that Dalek snuck into the TARDIS?" the Doctor complained.

"Oh, I don't know. When you kept hearing things blowing up that might have given you your first clue," Clara Oswald said with a giggle.

"Things blow up a lot in the TARDIS. She has old circuitry you know. Things just overload and pop sometimes. The Old Girl can't help it. Her best days are behind here I'm afraid," the Doctor said.

"It would help if you stopped constantly taking her apart and putting her back together wrong," Rose said with a warm grin.

"Doctor, I knew that you'd come. You always come when there's something like this going on," Sarah Jane said with a relieved look on her face.

"I had to come. The Silence want to get Henry here more than they've ever wanted to get anyone, and they must not reach him for his sake. If they do, it's going to be very, very bad," the Doctor said.

"What are you talking about?" Henry asked.

"You're a very intelligent little boy, Henry. In fact, you're much more intelligent than even you know. Locked deep inside of that mind of yours is a secret. It's a secret that must never be found. No one must ever get their hands on you or it," the Doctor said.

"What secret? I don't have any secrets," Henry said in confusion.

"You don't think that you do, but you do all the same, Henry. You see Mrs. Wormwood placed the combined knowledge of the Bane in your mind when she created you. You have knowledge that even you don't know about now. It's a forbidden piece of knowledge that the Silence have erased from every database in the universe recently including the Bane's. That knowledge wasn't erased from your brain though. That's the real reason that the Silence want you so badly, Henry. Yes, they want to use you to conquer the Earth, but they want to destroy the secret locked in your brain even more," the Doctor said.

"What secret?" Sarah Jane asked the Doctor.

"It's the exact location of a place that I must never go, and that no one else must ever find out about so that they can use it against me," the Doctor said.

"Tell them about it, Doctor. Tell them about Trenzalore," Mrs. Wormwood said as she suddenly appeared in front of them.

Henry began to go into a trance as he said, "Trenzalore, the future burial place of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Trenzalore is located in . . ."

The Doctor put his hand over Henry's mouth to keep him quiet as he said, "No one needs to know where it is, especially not me."

"Henry, are you okay?" Abby asked the blank-eyed Henry in concern.

"No one must ever know where Trenzalore is or the entire universe could be destroyed. We must prevent that at all costs even if it means killing an innocent child," Mrs. Wormwood said as she suddenly held a blaster to Henry's head.

"No! I don't care what he knows. I'm not going to stand by and let you kill a child," Sarah Jane said as she used her sonic lipstick to make Mrs. Wormwood's blaster short circuit.

The gun started to overheat, and Mrs. Wormwood threw it in the middle of a large group of Slabs as it exploded and took them all with it in one blast. During all of this confusion, Mrs. Wormwood tried to slip away only to find herself halted in her tracks when a giant tree suddenly materialized out of thin air right in front of her.

Kali, now back in control of Rani, stepped out of her TARDIS; and Mrs. Wormwood went to her knees as Kali started to send a blast of pain through her mind once more. Mrs. Wormwood struggled to stay conscious as Kali continued to try to shut her mind down.

"I should have finished you when I had a chance. Here's where I make up for that mistake. Then I'll gladly take that secret from your mind, Henry. I can use it for all kinds of interesting things I'm sure. I mean if it's something that the Doctor fears so much then it must be something very, very good," Kali said with an evil grin.

"Kali?" the Doctor asked in disbelief.

"Hello, Theta. Long time no see. Now, everyone on their knees before me! It doesn't matter whether you're Silence, Monks, Daleks, Cybermen, Time Lords, or Humans; all will soon bow before the power of Kali, the future ruler of all of time and space!" Kali said as she began to attack the minds of everyone within a mile of her all at once.

As everyone around her fell to the ground writhing in agony, Kali looked back to the prostrate bodies of Clyde and Luke lying on the floor of the Console Room behind her. She almost felt bad about what she had done to them. Almost. They had gotten in her way after all. No one ever got in Kali's way if they wanted to live.

**Next: It's Kali vs. everyone else with the secret of the location of Trenzalore and the life of Henry in the balance. What's happened to Rani? Is she gone for good? What did Kali do to Luke and Clyde? All of this will be resolved in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

**This story takes place before Bad Wolves Chapter 34.**

Kali slowly walked toward Henry with a massive smile on her face. Everyone was on their knees now before her screaming in agony as she continued to assault them with her mental attacks. Everyone began to slowly pass out in front of her as she walked by them.

"You and I are going to spend some quality time together, kid. You're going to tell me everything that you know about the Doctor," Kali said as soon as she reached the now unconscious Henry.

"I don't think so. Rani won't let you take him. Just like she's not letting you attack me now," Sarah Jane said as she suddenly got up off of the ground.

"How?" Kali asked in complete surprise.

Seeing a moment of opportunity, Sarah Jane quickly knocked Kali out with a well-placed Venusian karate chop. She felt bad about it immediately afterward though because by doing so she had been attacking Rani too. She just hoped that Rani would understand if she was still in there somewhere.

"Thanks. I needed that," Rani said as she immediately got back on her feet.

Sarah Jane looked at her in anticipation as she prepared for her next attack. It was an attack that never came.

"It's me, Rani. I'm back in charge for the moment, Sarah Jane. When you knocked Kali out, you gave me a chance to take over again," Rani said.

"You were wrong about me protecting you though. I tried to stop her, but her will is too strong. It's becoming harder and harder for me to fight her," Rani said sadly.

"Then how was I not affected?" Sarah Jane wondered.

Then a sudden realization hit her as she thought that she now knew just who had been responsible.

"Ishtar," Sarah Jane said to herself.

"Who?" Rani asked.

"Never mind. She's a new friend of mine who's very powerful it seems," Sarah Jane said.

"It's best not to tell me too much I guess. If I know it, Kali will probably know it too. Did this Ishtar tell you about me then?" Rani asked.

"Yes, she did. She wanted me to help you," Sarah Jane said.

"It's nice to know that someone's looking out for me. I think that I'm going to need all of the help that I can. She made me attack Luke and Clyde, Sarah Jane. I tried to stop her, but I couldn't," Rani said with sadness.

Sarah Jane suddenly noticed the two unmoving boys lying near the doorway of Rani's TARDIS for the first time now. She had been too focused on stopping Kali to see them there before.

"Luke? Clyde?" Sarah Jane asked in terror as she ran over to them.

"They're still alive. Kali knocked them out with a mind blast just like she did to everyone here except for you," Rani explained.

"Why didn't she kill them?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I don't know. I could feel that she wanted to at first, but she changed her mind for some reason," Rani said.

"Maybe you have more of an influence on her than you think," a voice said from behind them.

They turned to see Ishtar standing there smiling at them.

"Rose?" Rani asked.

"Not quite but you're close," Ishtar said with a giggle.

"This is the new friend that I told you about. She looks just like Rose but it isn't her," Sarah Jane said.

"It's a long story that we don't have time for right now. Just as you've already guessed, I've given you total protection from Kali's powers, Sarah Jane, so that you can help Rani. You wouldn't be of much help to her if Kali could affect you like she does everyone else, would you?" Ishtar said.

"What gives you the right to interfere in things, Old One?" Kali asked as she suddenly reassumed control from Rani once more.

"Well, look who's back. I give myself the right, Kali. I normally don't believe in interfering in other people's lives this way, but you're such a danger to everyone around you that I really don't have much of a choice. I know you. You'd destroy this entire planet if I let you," Ishtar said.

"You know me? I've never even met you before," Kali said in confusion,

"Don't be too sure about that," Ishtar muttered to herself.

Sarah Jane began to notice that this time Ishtar was behaving slightly differently than she had before. Her body language and the way that she spoke were all off as well. It was almost as if she was putting on an impersonation of herself and not quite doing it right as odd as that sounded. She couldn't find any better way to explain it though. It was just a general feeling of wrongness that she got from her this time that she hadn't felt before in their previous meeting.

Ishtar smiled at her as she studied her. She knew that Sarah Jane would be smart enough to put the pieces together. She just hoped that no one else, especially the Silence, would be able to.

Sarah Jane looked at her in surprise as she finally understood why Ishtar was acting so differently now.

That clever woman! She's found a way to keep her secret while still standing out here in plain sight! Sarah thought to herself with a devilish grin on her face.

As Ishtar winked at Sarah Jane, Kali just looked at both of them as though they had gone crazy. She had no idea what was going on here, and she really didn't care. She was going to get the boy and find out what he knew, and no one was going to stop her.

Kali suddenly ran toward the boy and grabbed him before Sarah Jane could stop her. She then ran straight towards her TARDIS with him hoisted over her shoulder.

Sarah Jane quickly ran after her but couldn't catch up to her because she was moving too quickly for her. Time Lords have a decided mental and physical advantage over even the best of humans after all.

Sarah Jane just managed to make it inside as Kali shut the doors to her TARDIS and dematerialized it. Sarah suddenly realized that she was now stuck inside of it alone with Kali in the middle of the Vortex with only the still unconscious Luke and Clyde available to help her.

It seemed that Ishtar wasn't coming with them. She had decided to sit this one out and leave it up to her apparently. Maybe it was just as well since her presence had seemed to only infuriate Kali more.

"It seems that you've got yourself into quite a terrible situation here, haven't you? I wonder how it's going to end, hm? I'll give you a hint, Miss Smith. It isn't going to be pleasant," Kali said with a malevolent smile.

"You can't hurt me. Your powers don't work on me, and I'm pretty good at self-defense if I do say so myself," Sarah Jane said confidently.

"That's true but that interfering little busybody didn't protect you from this, did she?" Kali asked as she pulled out an old staser that she had retrieved from one of the storage areas of her TARDIS.

"Oh, no! I never saw that coming," a voice said sarcastically as it echoed throughout the TARDIS.

"You again!" Kali spat out in anger.

"Yep, it's little old me. I'm quite annoying, aren't I?" Ishtar said as her voice continued to echo all around them.

"What does it take to stop you? How can I make you go away?" Kali asked as she thought out loud.

"Some good tasting chips might help. You don't happen to have any on hand, do you? I could really murder a good batch of chips right about now," Ishtar's voice called out all around them.

Could you be more obvious? Sarah Jane thought to herself with a smile.

"Go away!" Kali screamed out in frustration.

"No sense of self-control just like always," Ishtar said from seemingly everywhere around them at once.

While Kali was distracted by Ishtar's taunts, Sarah Jane pulled out her sonic lipstick and used it to make Kali's staser start to smoke and fizzle as she blew out its circuitry. Kali quickly dropped it as it began to grow too hot to hold.

"Rani, fight her. I know that you can do it. You can beat her. Take your life back. Don't let her do this to you. She's so petty and small, and you could be so much more. You already are more than she could ever hope to be. You have a right to exist. Fight for it!" Sarah Jane encouraged her.

"Annika, help her. I know that you're in there. Help her," Ishtar's voice called out as it echoed around them.

Kali screamed as a tremendous battle erupted in her mind between herself and Rani. She could feel Rani going all out now. She wasn't backing down this time. There was someone else here now too. A third presence.

"You! I killed you. You can't be still here," Kali said in disbelief.

Sarah Jane began to look on in fear and disbelief as Rani's eyes began to glow, and a golden aura appeared around her body. It was almost as if she were regenerating.

"What's happening?" Sarah Jane called out.

Rani's eyes still glowed as she said, "Change, Sarah Jane, and not a moment too soon."

Her eyes returned to normal now, and she looked at Sarah Jane with a warm smile.

"That's much better. I haven't felt this good in, well, ever," Rani said with an extremely happy grin on her face.

"Rani?" Sarah Jane asked uncertainly.

"Yes and No. My real name's Annika, but I like being Rani Chandra. Her life is a lot better than mine ever was so I think that I'll keep that name and just stay as her if it's all the same to you," Rani said.

"Is Rani gone then?" Sarah Jane asked sadly.

"No. She's me. I was always Rani. She came from me when Kali used the Chameleon Arch because the TARDIS detected me as the true owner of this body. I am Rani and Annika combined now with the memories of each. I'm not sure what my personality's going to be like from now on, but I'm thinking that there won't be much difference. I really didn't change that much after I became human," Rani said.

"What about Kali?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Yeah, that's the only bad part. Kali's still here unfortunately. My mind is strong enough now that I'm whole again to keep her buried for now, but I can't guarantee that she might not come back out again sometime. I'm going to have to find a solution to that and quickly," Rani said.

It was at that moment that Henry woke up to find Sarah Jane and Rani staring at him. He began to shake in fear as he wondered what was going to happen to him next.

"Are you going to kill me?" Henry asked Rani.

"Why would I do that? Have you done anything to me?" Rani asked with an amused look on her face.

Henry nervously shook his head no, and Rani couldn't help but smile at him.

"Well, there you go then. That answers that. You don't bother me, and I don't bother you. Deal?" Rani asked as she continued to smile.

Henry nodded and gave her a little smile of his own in return.

Sarah Jane laughed as she realized that Rani was starting to remind her of the Doctor now. It must be the new Time Lord side of her coming out.

"What should we do now then? We can't take Henry back to UNIT now that the Silence are there. How do we keep him from them?" Sarah Jane wondered.

"Maybe we could just let him stay here," Rani offered.

"Here? In your TARDIS?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Why not? I've got plenty of room. He's more than welcome to stay here. Let them try to find him when they can't even tell that it's a TARDIS at all. I mean it looked pretty convincing as a tree I thought. I could park it outside of my room at the University, and no one would think twice about it. It'll be just another part of the landscape to them," Rani said.

"Yes, but to leave a child unattended and alone inside of here for who knows how long while you attend classes is not a good idea," Sarah Jane admitted.

Ishtar suddenly appeared inside of the TARDIS and said, "I have an idea about that. There's a new school that's starting up to take care of the children of our little time traveling community. Someone will always be there to watch over and protect them while they're there. The best thing is that the instructors will all be people that both of you will more than likely already know and trust."

"I thought that Rose Tyler was behind that new school," Sarah Jane said with a grin.

"Oh she is but she doesn't make a move without consulting me first. You could say that it's almost as if we're the same person," Ishtar said with a wide grin covering her face.

"I can believe that," Sarah Jane said as she tried not to laugh.

"That sounds like a good idea to me. We could leave Henry at this new school in the day, and he could stay with me in the TARDIS at night. Is that alright with you?" Rani asked Henry.

"I guess so. I'd rather do that then endanger people anymore. Could Abby come and visit?" Henry asked.

"Abby?" Rani asked.

"She's his girlfriend," Sarah Jane explained.

"She's not my girlfriend. She's a girl who is my friend. There's a difference," Henry complained.

"Right. I've got you. I thought Clyde was bad," Rani said as she shook her head at him.

"What am I bad at?" Clyde asked as he and Luke finally began to wake up.

"Just about everything. Yes, you can have Abby over to visit, Henry," Rani said as she stuck her tongue out at Clyde.

Sarah Jane now knew for sure that this was still the same Rani that she knew. She still had Rani's spirit and wit.

"So, uh, is everything okay now? You're not going to try to kill us anymore?" Luke asked uneasily.

"Not unless I feel like it. I'm feeling pretty benevolent at the moment though, but that could change if you keep asking me silly questions," Rani said with a warm smile.

"She's fine now," Sarah Jane assured him.

"That's good because I was really getting tired of being Kali's favorite whipping boy," Clyde said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, it seems like everything's okay here. I guess I'll leave now. I'll see all of you later. Maybe sooner than you think," Ishtar said as she disappeared.

"Was that Rose?" Clyde asked.

"I don't think so. That's not what she called herself. She does seem to be pretty familiar though. I feel like I've met her somewhere before," Rani said uncertainly.

Sarah Jane gave her a knowing glance as she was sure that she knew where that somewhere had been.

"Of course she looks familiar. She looks just like Rose. Maybe she's her twin sister or something," Clyde said.

"It's something like that I'm sure," Sarah Jane said with a grin.

Sarah Jane looked at all of them happily. This was the first time in a while that she had gotten to see all of them together again. Usually they just came to visit her separately although sometimes Rani and Clyde would come together. It seemed just like old times. She really hated for it to end, but she knew that it would have to soon. They all had their own lives to go back to now after all.

"I'll see if I can bring all of us around to see you more often. I do have a TARDIS now you know. What's the use of being able to travel through time and space if you can't use it to visit the people that you care about every once in a while? We can have adventures with you again just like before and still be back in time to go to school," Rani said to Sarah Jane as she guessed what she was thinking.

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that you actually know how to use this thing?" Clyde asked with an evil gleam in his eye.

"Yes," Rani said with a wary look on her face.

"That means that we could go anywhere and do anything, doesn't it?" Clyde asked.

"Yes if I feel like it," Rani said with an even more wary look on her face.

"I want to go to another planet. We could go traveling through space like the Doctor," Clyde said.

"No. Absolutely not. I have a kid to watch over now. I can't go putting him in danger like that," Rani said.

"I want to see another planet. That would be cool. Earth is boring," Henry said.

"See? He wants to go too," Clyde said.

Rani groaned in frustration as she said, "I should have just let Kali fry his brain."

Sarah Jane began to laugh. This was the best that she had felt in a long time. Everything about her life just felt right again.

Meanwhile back at the UNIT base, the soldiers there were busy cleaning things up with a little help from the Bad Wolves. Most of the Silence's army and allies had been captured and locked away elsewhere while they were still unconscious from Kali's mental attack with one important exception. Mrs. Wormwood had gotten away again.

The Doctor meanwhile had been going crazy looking for Rose, and then he sighed in relief as he finally found her. He had been afraid that the Silence had made off with her while they had all been unconscious.

"Where were you? You've been missing since I woke up," the Doctor asked.

"I was trying to find out what happened with Kali. I finally managed to get in touch with Sarah Jane, and everything seems to be fine now. Kali's not going to be a problem anymore I don't think. At least I hope not. Rani's firmly in charge of herself again, and she remembers who she is once more. It seems that our old friend Annika didn't die after all. I'll tell you more about that later. Henry's going to be in a safe place from now on by the way so there should be no danger of him telling anyone about Trenzalore," Rose said.

"I hope not or everything that the Silence have always been afraid of could happen, and it really would be the end of everything," the Doctor said.

"What do you want to bet that Clyde makes Rani take him off the planet?" Rose asked.

"I bet you that she breaks in less than a day," the Doctor said.

"You're on," Rose said.

"What do I get if I win?" the Doctor said.

"A kiss from me," Rose said.

"That sounds good to me and if I lose?" the Doctor asked.

"No fezzes for a month," Rose said evilly.

"Come on, Clyde. I'm counting on you. I don't think that I can last that long," the Doctor said with a disturbed look on his face.

Rose just laughed at him. She began to wonder if Ishtar could make a surprise visit to his closet and burn his hats. Then she could be blamed for it, and Rose would get off scot free. Or even better maybe she could get her mum to do it the next time that he slipped up with her.

Mrs. Wormwood watched them nearby with a burning glance of hatred on her face. Her perception filter was keeping her safe from detection so far, but she wasn't about to move until after dark when everyone went home just to be sure.

She wouldn't dare go back to Kovarian with this news. She was going to make sure that she found a spot far, far away from her and hid there for a good while. She would be back though. She would return when Sarah Jane and her brats least expected it, and then she would have her revenge for this day.

Sooner or later the boy would be hers. She would not lose him as she had Luke. She would not let herself be humiliated that way a second time. She would burn this planet to the ground first before she would let that happen to her again.

**Next: Rani breaks! She also finally tells Clyde the full story about exactly who she is. Oh, and does Rani still have Kali's powers? Good question. Find out the answer to that next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

Rani had been receiving a call from Rose every day since that whole mess with the Silence invading UNIT. She had thought at first that it was just that Rose had wanted to get to know her again. After all, they had known each other back in the old days on Gallifrey. Annika, Rani's old self, had been a friend of Cliodna's and therefore she had associated with Arkytior and Theta on occasion. They were never what you would call close though.

She finally found out Rose's real reason for calling though a week later when Rani had finally given in to Clyde's demands to take everyone to another planet. She had just materialized on the planet of Peladon when Rose appeared on the monitor. Talk about perfect timing! It was almost as if she knew that Rani had just left.

"Hey, Rani. How are things?" Rose asked.

"It's kind of funny that you should call at this exact moment. I just decided to take my friends on their first trip with me," Rani said.

"You decided?" Rose questioned.

"Alright. I finally gave up after Clyde bugged me all week and wouldn't stop talking about it," Rani admitted with a sigh.

"And that is how you get what you want from Rani, ladies and gentlemen. Can I get some appreciation?" Clyde said as he took a mock bow.

"Remind me to throw you out into the Vortex later," Rani joked.

Then Rani heard a loud scream of pain from the other end of her call with Rose, and she wondered just what was going on.

"What was that?" Rani asked Rose.

"Oh, nothing. The Doctor just found out that he lost the bet. That means no fezzes for him for a while," Rose smiled triumphantly.

"Is that why you've been calling me? This was all about one of your and Theta's bets?" Rani said hurt.

Rose's smile quickly faded as she shook her head at Rani while she said, "No, Annika. It was never just about a stupid bet. I've just wanted to see how you're doing. I know that we didn't know each other that well, but you were a part of my life for a long time back on Gallifrey. I just wanted to make sure that you're okay especially with everything that you've been going through lately."

"Thanks. I appreciate that. I'm fine I promise. Oh, and I prefer Rani like you prefer Rose," Rani said.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I, of all people, should have known better," Rose said with an evil gleam in her eye.

Rani saw Clyde's jaw on the ground out of the corner of her eye over what he had just heard the two of them talking about and growled as she said, "You did that on purpose!"

"He had to know sometime," Rose said in an apologetic tone.

"You never change. You were always a matchmaker," Rani sighed.

"I'm sorry. I know that I'm too much like my mother sometimes," Rose apologized.

"That's for sure," the Doctor's voice came from the background.

"It's okay. You're right. He did have to know sooner or later," Rani admitted.

She heard the Doctor scream again as Rose grinned.

"Do I even want to know what just happened?" Rani asked.

"Probably not," Rose said with a mischievous grin.

"Well, I guess you'll call me tomorrow then?" Rani asked hopefully.

"Yes, of course. Have fun on Peladon," Rose said as she signed off.

"Who burned my poor fezzes? They never hurt anyone!" the Doctor complained just as the monitor went black.

Rani, still wondering how Rose knew where she was, turned to see Clyde looking at her like she was a stranger. _Thanks a lot, Rose!_ Rani thought to herself.

"What's going on?" Henry asked as he knew that something was wrong from the strange looks that Clyde and Rani were giving each other.

"I think that they need a private moment alone for a minute," Sarah Jane said as she took Henry, Sky, and Luke with her into the corridors behind the Console Room.

"Is Rani a Time Lady now?" Luke asked as soon as they were alone and walking through the endless maze of the TARDIS' interior.

"Yes but she's still Rani. I can see that," Sarah Jane said.

"I never would have known. I mean she still seems to be like Rani more or less. So that's why she's been acting funny lately. I thought it was because of Eldrad," Luke said.

"That's just what triggered her to start remembering who she was again," Sarah Jane said.

"Does that mean that she's going to leave soon and start traveling around through time and space like the Doctor?" Sky asked fearfully.

"No. I don't think. She seems to want to continue on with her life as Rani," Sarah Jane said.

"Good. I don't want her to leave. She's like my big sister," Sky said.

"It sounds more like she should be your great grandmother and then some," Luke said smiling.

"I wouldn't make age jokes around Rani if I were you, Luke. Time Lords don't like that, especially the Time Ladies," Sarah Jane warned.

"Yeah, leave Rani alone. She's been good to me when she didn't have to be," Henry said.

Sarah Jane smiled as she realized that a bond was already forming between Rani and Henry. She wondered if Henry would become a permanent resident on Rani's TARDIS soon and exactly what nature that their relationship would take.

"Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. Rani's an old friend of mine. I was just joking around. She's just like a sister to me," Luke explained.

Henry nodded, and his expression softened. Luke couldn't help but laugh a little at that. It seemed that Henry had appointed himself as Rani's protector.

"Where is this place that we're at? I've heard you mention it before, haven't I?" Sky asked as she changed the subject.

"Yes, this is Peladon. I went here once with the Doctor a long time ago, and then he took me here again about two years ago when we had all of that trouble with the Black Guardian. It's usually a peaceful planet, but whenever the Doctor comes here there's always trouble. Maybe this time will be different," Sarah Jane said hopefully.

"With Rani's track record of getting into trouble? I doubt it," Luke said as he laughed.

Henry cleared his throat and glared at Luke as he said, "This is your second warning. Don't make me give you a third."

Sarah Jane laughed as Luke sighed. She liked Henry already.

Meanwhile back in the Console Room, Rani could have probably used Henry's help as she and Clyde shared an uncomfortable silence. Neither of them had spoken since the others had left.

"So what exactly is the truth, Rani? Oh, wait it's Annika, isn't it?" Clyde said.

"It used to be," Rani said.

"Rose seems to think that it still is, and she seems to know you pretty well. How old are you anyway?" Clyde asked.

"I'm a couple of hundred years old. More like a thousand really," Rani admitted as she saw Clyde wince.

"I've always liked older women, but this is ridiculous," Clyde said.

"You hit on Rose and Amy before, and they're both hundreds of years old too," Rani reminded him.

"Yeah, I guess I do have an eye for the cute immortal women," Clyde admitted with a grin.

"So, you're finally admitting that you like me then?" Rani asked.

"What? No. I never said that. You misunderstood me. I just think of you as a friend. We're just really good friends," Clyde said.

"Really? Why did you go after Alex then when he hit on me?" Rani asked.

"He was bothering you when you didn't feel good that's why," Clyde said.

"Okay. So you want to keep playing it that way then? I'll go along with you then, and I won't mention it anymore. I'll give you more time to admit to how you feel. Don't think that I'm going to wait around forever though because I won't," Rani lied.

"You're the one who likes me. Admit it, Rani, Annika, Kali, or whatever your name is. You've got it bad for me. It's because I'm just so irresistible to women," Clyde said smugly.

"Why do you do that? You can't admit how you feel so now you're putting on this little act where you pretend to be all shallow and vain. I know this isn't you, Clyde. It's time that we were honest with each other," Rani said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Clyde said looking disturbed.

"Alright, I get the message. Do you want to know more about me? Fine. My name was Annika, and I'm a Time Lord. I lived on Gallifrey long ago and went to the Academy with the people that you now know as Rose, the Doctor, and Amy. Amy was one of my best friends, and the Doctor and Rose were acquaintances of mine that I knew through her. We were never really that close though. Not everyone at the Academy was a friend of mine unfortunately. Kali was always a dangerous person even then, and she seemed to take a special interest in running me down. She was a bully, Clyde. She used to do terrible things to me all of the time. Then she finally moved on from bullying me to bullying the entire universe. She finally went too far though when she caused an entire planet to commit suicide with her mind control powers. The Time Lords sentenced her to die, or at least they thought they had. She actually took over my body instead, and my mind was submerged beneath hers. It wasn't until Kali hid on Earth and used the Chameleon Arch that I was freed at last. I was freed in more ways than one really. I'm a much stronger person as Rani than I ever was as Annika. That's why I no longer use that name. I prefer to be Rani. This is who I am now. I'm Rani Chandra, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying on Earth and keeping the life that I've established there, Time Lady or not, and this time Kali's not going to ruin it for me," Rani said.

"Good," Clyde said with a massive smile.

Rani decided to just go for it. She was tired of wasting time. Ever since she remembered who she really was, she had decided that this was her second chance and that she was going to make the most of it. She was going to make him admit how he felt about her once and for all.

She grabbed ahold of Clyde and kissed him. Clyde's eyes flew open wide as he was taken totally by surprise. This wasn't the Rani that he knew anymore. His Rani would never do this. This new version of Rani was strong willed. She had decided that she was going to take charge of her life in more ways than one apparently. He wasn't sure if he liked that or not.

Once Rani pulled away, Clyde said, "Rani, I . . ."

That was when the whole TARDIS began to shake and shudder. Rani wondered if something was attacking it.

Rani raced to the monitor and switched it to the outside view. It was some kind of animal. Apparently, it had decided to try to climb up the tree that her TARDIS looked like at the moment. Every movement that it made just left the TARDIS shaking more and more.

Sarah Jane and the others came running into the Console Room then. Sarah exclaimed in surprise as she saw the monitor, "It's an Aggedor. He must have decided that this is his new home."

"Oh, wonderful. So now I've got to try to get rid of him before I leave, or I'm going to have a new pet," Rani said with a groan.

"I bet he'd be better company than Henry over there," Clyde joked.

"Lay off of me. That's your first warning," Henry said.

"Good job, Henry. You're standing up for yourself already just like I taught you. I don't really like the warning business though. I don't approve of violence except in self-defense," Rani said.

"You put him up to that?" Luke asked in anger.

"I just told him to stand up for himself and the people that he cares about. Anything else that's he done is all his own idea," Rani said.

"It's good to stand up for yourself, Henry, but maybe you should stop with the threats," Sarah Jane said.

"Okay, if you say so," Henry said.

"How did you do that?" Luke asked Sarah Jane in surprise.

"It's because I actually like her," Henry said as he answered Luke instead.

Luke groaned while Henry smiled.

"Boys, there's not going to be any fighting. Do you understand me?" Sarah Jane said.

"Yes, Sarah Jane," Henry said.

"You know if you'd quit trying to prove how macho you are all of the time you wouldn't be half bad," Sky said as she smiled at him.

"Sorry. I just tried to give him some self-confidence, and he's let it go to his head," Rani said,

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again," Henry said as he looked down at the ground in shame.

"Good," Rani said as she held his head up and smiled at him. Henry was suddenly happy again as he smiled back at her after her show of approval.

"Rani's already become kind of like his mum, hasn't she?" Clyde whispered to Luke. Luke nodded in agreement.

The TARDIS began to shake again even more violently than before, and Rani could now see several more Aggedors climbing up the tree that was her TARDIS. That was it! She was not putting up with any more of this.

_Get off of the tree now!_ Rani said to the minds of the Aggedors.

All of them left the tree immediately and began to wander off elsewhere. Rani sighed in relief as the shaking in her TARDIS stopped.

_You want nothing to do with me, but you don't mind using my powers though, do you?_ Kali's voice said from deep within her mind.

_Shut up! I only use your powers as a last resort. I have no desire to be anything like you._ Rani responded to her.

_This isn't over, Annika. I will take back the body. You can count on it._ Kali said and then became silent once more.

_Any time you're ready you just go ahead and try it. _Rani replied back confidently.

"Was that you?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Yes. I told them to go away," Rani said.

"Those are Kali's powers though, aren't they? Isn't it dangerous to be using her powers? Couldn't that leave you open to be taken over by her again?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Yes, that's why I don't like to use them much," Rani admitted.

"Yet you did just now. You can't use them as an easy solution to solve any problem that happens to get in your way that's too hard to fix all at once," Sarah Jane said.

"You're right. I can't grow used to using them. I have to resist the temptation to do so," Rani said.

"I hope that you do. I don't want Kali to ever return again," Sarah Jane said.

"Don't worry about her, Sarah Jane. I have her completely under control," Rani said confidently.

"I say it's time that we go and see the planet. I want to see it," Henry said impatiently.

"You're right. Let's go on out there then," Rani said as she opened the doors to the outside.

Henry raced out first only to scream as soon as he went out. Rani quickly followed him to see Davros and a small group of Daleks holding Henry at gunpoint.

"Davros! Let him go!" Sarah Jane ordered him.

"It's so nice to see you again, Miss Smith. I'm afraid that I can't honor your request though. He's the reason that I came here after all. I've heard from the Silence that this child knows the location of Trenzalore, and I would very much like to know where that is along with everything else that he knows about it," Davros said.

"I won't tell you or Mrs. Wormwood. I won't help the Silence," Henry said firmly.

"Unlike your Mrs. Wormwood, I no longer work with the Silence. We had a bit of a falling out over a certain issue," Davros said.

Sarah Jane laughed as she realized what he was talking about.

"You wouldn't work with them to kill Cassie. You tried to protect her," Sarah Jane said.

"I didn't see the use in harming her. It was an unnecessary element in the Doctor's destruction," Davros said.

"If I didn't know you better, Davros, I'd swear that you had a soft spot for her," Sarah Jane said.

"You would be wrong to assume such a thing. I have no feelings for anyone. Emotions are a weakness. One that I purged from my mind a long time ago. I am like my Daleks in that I feel nothing but pure, unbridled hate. It was not necessary to kill the Doctor's daughter when she could be a helpful ally at a later date. That was my only reason for turning against Kovarian. She is extremely wasteful of potential resources," Davros said.

"I don't believe you. You actually care about someone for the first time in your life, and you just can't admit it," Sarah Jane said.

"It's not for the first time," Davros said in a small voice.

"What?" Sarah Jane asked in surprise.

"The past can be rewritten. Isn't that what the Time Lords say? If that is truly so, then I will rewrite it. I will use the knowledge in this boy's mind to change history, Sarah Jane Smith. Soon the Daleks will triumph once and for all, and the Doctor will be just a minor footnote in their story. The Daleks will finally reign supreme over all of time and space at last," Davros said with a maniacal laugh.

**Next: My version of Trenzalore begins here next time. This will be a part of my overall final Silence storyline. Will Davros learn the location of Trenzalore, and what will he do if he does? Also what part will Kovarian and the Silence play in all of this?**


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

**This story continues from Bad Wolves Chapter 37.**

Trenzalore Part 1

Davros watched with no emotion on his face as his Daleks relentlessly interrogated Henry as to the whereabouts of Trenzalore. Henry refused to break even though it was obvious to Sarah Jane that he was terrified of them.

"Leave him alone. He's only a boy," Sarah Jane protested.

"They will not stop until I know the exact location of Trenzalore, and all that there is to know about it. All he has to do is to tell me that, and he will be freed," Davros said.

"I don't believe you," Henry said.

"Neither do I. You'll never free him or any of us. It's not your way. All you know is hatred and death," Sarah Jane said.

"That's all that's left to me. Why not repay the world with hatred and destruction when it took everything away from me? Why not let everyone else suffer as I have suffered? Look at me, Miss Smith! Look at this broken, desiccated form and see the price that I paid for the Kaleds' war against the Thals. It wasn't the only price that I paid, however. I bear a far worse wound. A wound to my very soul," Davros said in an emotion filled voice.

"Whoever you lost would not want all of this. I'm certain of that. They would recoil in horror at what you've become," Sarah Jane said perceptively as she guessed at what he meant by his words.

"What do you know of what they would or would not want? It doesn't matter anyway. They're gone now, and I am alone. I'm alone and cursed to roam the universe as this thing that I've become forever. Maybe it is my penance in a way for not being there to save her. I was too caught up in the war to see what really mattered. Now it's too late. Or at least it was. Now I can change it, Miss Smith! Once I find Trenzalore, I can change everything! The Daleks will destroy this sick and decayed universe, and they will stand in triumph over it at last. I will finally win. I will finally have my revenge! More importantly, I will finally have her back," Davros said.

"You're sick and twisted, Davros. You've let your grief and heartbreak make you into something evil and corrupt," Sarah Jane said.

"It doesn't matter what you think of me. You have no right to judge me because you don't understand what I've been through. You only saw what I became immediately afterwards, but you didn't see what made me that way. You also didn't see her. You arrived just as she died. If you had met her and saw what I had lost maybe then you could understand. She was the only one who was kind to me even after what had happened. She was the only one who understood. Without her, I was lost. Without her, I stopped caring anymore," Davros said.

"You were broken. You've just been going through the motions ever since then, haven't you? I was so in danger of becoming just like you. I would have too if not for my sister," a voice said from behind them.

Sarah Jane turned to see a redheaded woman with an odd looking metal band on her arm being led toward them in chains by the Daleks. She had no idea who she was, but she was obviously no friend to Davros.

"THE VORTEX NEUTRALIZER DEVICE THAT YOU DESIGNED IS WORKING AS EXPECTED. HER POWER HAS BEEN NULLIFIED BY ITS EFFECTS, AND THE TIME LADY HAS BEEN UNABLE TO REMOVE IT DESPITE SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO DO SO," one of the Daleks said to Davros.

"Excellent. The armband has rendered you helpless. You are just like any ordinary Time Lord now. It also hides any trace of your power or your true species completely from anyone who is looking for it. You will now give off human life readings that should fool even a Time Lord at first glance. The Doctor will not be able to track you here. He will have no way of finding you. He will have to go to Trenzalore in order to get you back, and that is where I will make him say his name. The prophecy says that it is the Doctor saying his name that makes silence fall after all," Davros said.

"What is at Trenzalore that is so powerful that it can change the past?" Sarah Jane asked.

"That is what we will find out together, Miss Smith. It is only appropriate that you be here to witness my final triumph since you were there for so much of the beginning of my creations. Now you will see the final victory of the Daleks at last at Trenzalore," Davros said.

"You've said that before, remember?" Sarah Jane said defiantly.

"Yes but it was only the interference of Donna Noble that kept me from succeeding on that occasion because I did not expect her to suddenly become half Time Lord. Now I realize it was the treachery of the Bad Wolf behind that entire incident. Even then Rose Tyler worked against me behind the scenes. This time, however, the advantage is mine. Not only have I temporarily taken her powers, but I have also taken her daughter," Davros said as he smiled in triumph at the redheaded woman.

"You're Rose's daughter?" Sarah Jane asked in surprise.

"Yes, my name is Cassiopeia. I am her first child who she thought was dead until recently. I was actually kidnapped, brainwashed, and then raised into an assassin in secret by Kovarian and the Silence. I was their replacement for River Song until my memories were returned to me by my sister, Jenny," Cassiopeia explained.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen! You were once one of the most feared assassins in the universe, and now you are only a helpless prisoner being brought before me in chains. Of course, how could it be any other way? No one is a match for the Daleks after all," Davros taunted her.

"I've had enough of this. Even if it does cost me a terrible price, I have to stop this," Rani said as she finally had enough of Davros' taunting.

"Rani, no!" Sarah Jane shouted. She feared that Kali might take Rani over once more and make things even worse if Rani were to use her powers.

Rani began to attack the Daleks' minds, and they began to screech in agony as their brains felt like they were on fire. Then a Dalek in a blue shell teleported in front of her, and Rani began to be attacked herself. Now it was her turn to feel as if her brain were burning as this new arrival began to assault her mind.

Rani's eyes rolled back in her head, and she passed out from the pain. She hit the ground with a solid thump as Davros laughed.

"Not even the most accomplished of telepaths can match the Psionic Dalek. He was specially bred to be the most powerful telepath in the universe. No one can match him in a battle of wills," Davros said proudly.

"Rani! If you've hurt her, I'll rip you apart!" Henry shouted.

"Insolent child! This is all your own doing. If you had only told me what I wish to know, she would be unharmed right now," Davros said.

"Don't believe him," Sarah Jane warned.

"I don't. Anyone that evil would never let us go," Henry reasoned.

"You are very wise, child. Far too wise for your own good! If threats and intimidation do not convince you, then perhaps another tactic may work. Perhaps I will have to raise the bar so to speak," Davros said as he looked at Sarah Jane malevolently now.

Davros signaled the Daleks nearest to Sarah Jane, and they quickly surrounded her in all directions. Then they parted just enough to allow one Dalek in. This single Dalek moved closer and closer to Sarah Jane until it was right in front of her. Then it aimed its gun stalk at her and said, "AWAITING ORDERS. SHALL I EXTERMINATE HER?"

"That's up to Henry, of course. Tell me everything that you know about Trenzalore, and I will spare her life. Otherwise, I'll order her destruction. What will it be, child?" Davros said with an evil smile.

"He'll kill me anyway when all of this is over with. Don't tell him anything," Sarah Jane said.

Henry looked at her with tears in his eyes, and Davros started to laugh at him. He knew that the child would give in soon. He had triumphed.

Then Davros' laughter was drowned out by the laughter of someone else as a voice said, "Oh, the little man thinks that he's so clever. All that he has managed to do though is to bring about his own doom. He has finally set me free!"

Davros saw what looked like Rani standing before him, but it was actually Kali. By knocking out Rani's psyche, the Psionic Dalek had freed her at last to take back control over Rani's body.

"Impossible! No one can match the Psionic Dalek in a mental contest," Davros said in disbelief.

"I am not just anyone, insect. I am Kali, the greatest telepath that the Time Lords have ever produced. I caused the destruction of an entire world just for my own amusement. Do you really think that one pathetic Dalek can defeat me? Kindly put this tired old fool out of his misery for me, won't you?" Kali ordered the Daleks.

"WE OBEY!" the Daleks surrounding Sarah Jane said as they all began to fire on Davros at once.

"No, you can't do this to me! I am Davros, and they are mine to command! They belong to me!" Davros shouted as he quickly surrounded himself in a force field.

"Not anymore. They're my playthings now. First, I'll kill you, and then I'll destroy our delightful Miss Smith. I'll throw Lukey boy out into space, and then I'll toss Clyde into the Vortex to float along there for all eternity if his body doesn't disintegrate first. You, though, I think I'll keep," Kali said as she looked at Henry.

"Rani?" Henry asked in puzzlement.

"Please! Do I sound like Rani? I am Kali, the most feared woman in the universe. Do keep up, Henry. I thought you were much smarter than that. Or do the Bane not make their super weapons as clever these days as they used to?" Kali said with an evil smirk.

"Destroy her!" Davros futilely commanded the Daleks.

"WE ONLY OBEY MISTRESS KALI. SHE HAS COMMANDED YOUR DESTRUCTION, AND WE WILL FULFILL HER WISHES. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" the Daleks chanted together in unison.

"No, no, no," Davros said to himself in frustration.

"Psionic Dalek, do you still listen to your master?" Davros asked.

"I OBEY WITHOUT QUESTION," the Psionic Dalek said as he appeared next to him. His mind had been too powerful to be affected by even Kali's power.

"COUNTERACT HER POWER. RELEASE THEM FROM HER HOLD ON THEM," Davros commanded.

"I OBEY," the Psionic Dalek said as it began to mentally attack Kali.

"Oh, the little man's prized pet telepath decides to get in on the fun, eh? You couldn't beat me before, stripling. What makes you think that you can beat me now?" Kali said amused.

The Psionic Dalek kept hammering away at Kali's psyche unsuccessfully as the other Daleks continued to try to break through Davros' force field. Sarah Jane meanwhile sneaked away while the bad guys were busy battling with each other. She managed to meet up with Clyde and Luke, who had also gotten away from the others, but couldn't reach Henry or Cassiopeia, who were right in the middle of the war between Kali and Davros.

"What should we do?" Luke asked.

"We have to get to the TARDIS and call for help. We need to let the Doctor and Rose know that we're here," Sarah Jane said.

As they headed for Rani's TARDIS, the Doctor's TARDIS materialized in the middle of The Library that CAL ran. The Doctor knew that if anyone could tell him where Trenzalore was that it would be Charlotte. Her library had a copy of every book ever written in it after all. Surely one of them would mention it.

Of course the Vashta Nerada would probably still be here and would have to be dealt with, but one problem at a time. As soon as he opened the door to the TARDIS, the Doctor knew that something was wrong. He could already sense that someone besides the Vashta Nerada was here now.

"I am so pleased that you could make it, Doctor. I knew that you'd come here eventually in order to find out where Trenzalore was. It was only a matter of time," Kovarian said as she stepped out of the shadows.

Several of the Silence now appeared with her, and the Doctor was quickly surrounded by them. He hit himself in the head as he realized that he had stepped right into a trap. He just hoped that the others had the good sense to stay inside of the TARDIS and not reveal themselves.

"Let him go or face the might of Clara Oswald!" Clara said as she stepped out of the TARDIS with a sonic screwdriver in her hand.

"Clara, what are you doing? And what's with 'the might of Clara Oswald' bit? Is that the best that you could come up with?" the Doctor said with a sigh.

"I thought it up in the heat of the moment. We can't all have clever, little catchphrases. Now shut up! I'm saving your life, you ungrateful boy," Clara said with a smile on her face.

"Destroy her!" Kovarian ordered.

The Silence began to fire electricity out of their fingers at Clara, and then stared at her in surprise as their blasts went right through her. The Doctor started laughing at the looks on their faces. Clara was apparently being very clever with the TARDIS' holographic interface. He just hoped that the sudden burst of inspiration that he had gotten from her little ruse worked.

"Do you really think that I'm that stupid? Rose already told me that she thought that you had already been here once before in order to free the Great Intelligence. Of course, I'd prepare for you being here again before I came here. She was just a hologram of Clara projected from inside of the TARDIS, and I'm only a hologram of the Doctor. I sent the hologram out of the TARDIS first just in case I found you here waiting for me. Like I really believed that you were dead despite what Donna told me," the Doctor said with a large smile.

"No one knew that I was still alive. No one saw me leave the Moon Base. How could you possibly have foreseen this?" Kovarian asked.

"I'm just that clever that's how," the Doctor said proudly.

"If you're really a hologram, then you won't mind if I order my men to shoot you, will you?" Kovarian said with a smug grin on her face.

"How thick are you? Do you actually think that I'm really the Doctor, and I just made up the hologram story as a clever ruse to defeat you? I mean, come on! I'm clever but I'm not that clever. Just ask Rose," the Doctor said with an unconcerned look on his face.

"I think you're just that devious, Doctor, is what I think. Kill him and end the threat of the silence forever!" Kovarian said.

As the Silence closed in on the Doctor with their fingertips cracking with electricity, Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Luke were stopped just short of reaching Rani's TARDIS by the arrival of yet another combatant to the little war between Kali and Davros. They gasped in surprise as they saw who it was. They had never expected to see her here on Peladon of all places.

Oswin Oswald looked at Sarah Jane with a devastated look on her face as she said, "Hello, Sarah Jane. I wish that I could say that it was nice to see you but I can't. I've just been to what's left of the Dalek Resistance Base."

"Do you mean that your Daleks were living here?" Sarah Jane asked in surprise.

"Yes. At least they were. Davros found them and killed every last one of them before blowing the base up. The only members of the Resistance left are the ones that went with me to Earth. Luckily, that was most of them, but I still lost so many of my friends here today," Oswin said as she struggled to hold back her tears.

"I'm so sorry, Oswin. My friends are in danger from Davros as well now," Sarah Jane said.

"Davros is the one who's going to be in danger. From me!" Oswin said in anger.

Oswin then raced off to confront Davros before Sarah Jane could tell her about Kali. Sarah Jane tried to shout it out to her, but she wasn't listening.

"You can stop now. I think she's already figured it out, Sarah Jane," Clyde said.

Oswin certainly had as Kali began to strangle her telekinetically without even turning around to look at her. Kali laughed as she said, "Hello, there. I've heard about you. You're the Empress of the Daleks, right? Should I be afraid because so far you're not that impressive?"

Oswin gasped for breath as Kali continued to laugh at her. Oswin knew that she was only moments away from passing out now.

"Now where was I? Oh, yes. I was trying to kill Davros. I hate multi-tasking. It really does severely limit your concentration trying to kill two people at the same time," Kali said merrily.

Sarah Jane, Clyde, and Luke rushed back to the TARDIS and successfully made it inside now as Kali was challenged yet again by the arrival of yet another new combatant.

"LET GO OF THE EMPRESS, OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" a Dalek voice shouted.

"Oh, and who's going to stop me?" Kali said amused.

"I AM! I AM DALEK EPSILON, AND I WILL DEFEND MY EMPRESS TO THE DEATH!" Epsilon said as he appeared with an army of Oswin's Daleks behind him.

"Let's go then, boys. Bring it on!" Kali said as some of the Daleks who had been attacking Davros now turned around to protect her.

During the middle of this chaos, Sarah Jane was desperately sending out a distress signal to anyone who would listen. She knew that they would need all of the help that they could get to help them stop both Davros and Kali.

"This is Sarah Jane Smith. There is deadly danger on Peladon. Both Davros and Kali are here trying to find out the secrets of Trenzalore. Also, Oswin Oswald is in serious danger. Please come as quickly as possible," Sarah Jane broadcast out over the TARDIS' communication system.

"I hope that someone comes soon, or we might not survive much longer," Luke said.

"Yeah because no matter who wins between Davros and Kali we lose," Clyde said as he desperately hoped to himself that Rani was still around inside there somewhere. That was their only hope now.

Besides that, he couldn't picture a universe without her.

**Next in the Trenzalore story: Part 2 of my Trenzalore story continues in Amy Pond, The Girl Who Waited Chapter 9 coming soon. Amy hears Sarah Jane's distress call and comes right away. Can Amy help stop the carnage and save Oswin? Furthermore, can Cassie talk some sense into Davros? Or is Davros too far gone for even her to change his mind now? Also, what will happen to the Doctor? Is he going to be killed before he even makes it to Trenzalore? **

**Next in this title: It's the return of Lady Jane Grey. How in the world did she survive the executioner's axe and not change history? **


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

Neither Rani nor Clyde had mentioned their kiss during the whole mess with the Silence at all since it happened. Clyde was too embarrassed to mention it and was hoping that Rani would just let things go back to normal. Rani meanwhile wasn't sure if he had really meant it or not, or if it was just done in the heat of the moment. She was waiting to see if he would follow up on it or not before she mentioned it.

Sarah Jane meanwhile just wanted to shake her head at both of them. Especially Rani. Rani was hundreds of years old but was just as bad as Clyde. It had been obvious to Sarah and everyone else for a long time that the two of them liked each other, and yet neither of them could admit it to one another. Not even after their first kiss.

Even now Rani had gone off to who knew where by herself in her TARDIS. She hadn't told any of them where she was going, and Clyde had been moping about it for hours now according to Luke. He had told her over the computer that Clyde was about to drive him nuts, and that she shouldn't be too surprised if he knocked Clyde out sometime soon if he kept it up for much longer.

After discouraging Luke from knocking out Clyde, she told him to take Clyde somewhere fun and take his mind off of Rani for a while. That was how Luke and Clyde wound up at a history museum of all places. Well, it was Luke's idea of fun anyway if not Clyde's.

Suddenly Luke got very excited as he looked at an exhibit about Lady Jane Grey. She was the unfortunate sixteen year old girl who was only the Queen of England for nine days before she was arrested after Queen Mary claimed the throne for herself. She was then proclaimed a traitor and executed.

Rani had been sent back to her time to get an object for the mysterious being called the Shopkeeper that he needed to save the world with. While she was trying to find it, she had gotten to know the young girl very well and told her that she would be remembered for centuries to come in order to comfort her in her final moments.

Luke knew that Rani had always hated having to leave her to die when she took the object, which turned out to be a dagger, and went back to the present with it. It had never set well with her because she had liked the young Queen and had wanted to save her.

Now it seemed that she had gone back to see her again at least according to one of the paintings in the exhibit. He saw a painting of Lady Jane Grey being led to her execution, and there was a woman who looked just like Rani in the background watching her. Luke had been here before, and he knew that he hadn't remembered seeing this painting here then. Was Rani changing the past?

"What is it that you keep staring at in such fascination? I swear that you are such a nerd, Luke. All of this stuff just excites you, doesn't it? All it does for me is bore me to tears," Clyde said.

"This one won't. Look at it," Luke said as he pointed at the painting with Rani in it.

"No! I can't believe it. Is that where she went? I knew that she felt terrible about leaving her there, but she can't change that, can she?" Clyde asked in disbelief.

"She's not supposed to," Luke said.

"We still remember that she died though so she didn't change it, right?" Clyde asked as he looked at the exhibit to see what it said.

"I wouldn't think that she changed anything, but why else would she go back? I know it wasn't to watch her die. Rani would get too upset watching that because she knew her personally," Luke said.

"The exhibit says that she still died, but that a strange woman who sounds like Rani was with her in her final moments. What's going on here? What is she up to?" Clyde asked.

"Why don't you ask me yourself?" Rani said from behind them and made them both jump.

"What have you been up to?" Clyde asked as soon as he recovered his wits.

"Oh, that painting makes me look terrible. I don't look like that, do I? I'm much better looking than that," Rani said as she ignored Clyde's question.

"You're definitely much prettier than that," Henry said as he appeared out of nowhere.

"Thanks. I should go back and give that painter a piece of my mind," Rani said.

"Rani, what did you do?" Clyde asked.

"What are you, my dad? What's with the third degree all of a sudden?" Rani asked in a huff.

"Why are you acting like a little kid when you're hundreds of years old?" Clyde shouted.

"Why don't you shout it a little louder so everyone can hear you and have me hauled off to be experimented on somewhere?" Rani asked in an angry whisper.

"I'm sorry," Clyde said as he looked around him with a worried look on his face.

"You should be," Henry said.

"Now I'm getting lectures from your kid," Clyde said.

"He's not my kid. He's my friend," Rani said.

Henry looked hurt for a moment Luke noticed but said nothing. Apparently Henry thought differently about their relationship than Rani did.

"What have you done? I thought that Time Lords weren't supposed to change history," Clyde said.

"We're not supposed to change the big things, especially fixed points in time. I found a way around that though. I hope," Rani said with a grimace.

"You hope?" Clyde asked.

Just then a woman that looked just like the one in the painting of Lady Jane Grey came walking up to them in modern clothing. She looked very uncomfortable and kept looking around her suspiciously as if she was afraid that she would be taken away at any moment.

"Lady Rani, I'm not sure if I like this future of yours. Everything is just so different here. It's quite shocking. I think that I preferred it better when I thought that you were an angel," Lady Jane said.

"At least no one is trying to kill you here. You're safe now," Rani said.

"I don't feel safe. I feel like that I'm going to wake up at any moment to find that this is all a dream and that the executioner's axe is being aimed at my head just like in that painting. Are you sure that everyone was fooled?" Lady Jane asked.

"Yes, perfectly. No one is going to look too closely at the body; and even if they do, they won't understand that it's not really you. Maybe they'll think that you're a witch or something when they discover that it doesn't bleed, but what do you care? You're here now," Rani said.

"What happened?" Luke asked.

"I had an android made to look like Lady Jane, and it was the one beheaded instead of her. I switched it for her at the last moment. Then I stuck around to make sure that no one studied the android too closely so that it didn't change Earth's history. To do that, I stayed with Lady Jane's maids who prepared the 'body' for burial and made sure that they didn't tell anyone that it wasn't human. Then I ensured that it was buried as quickly as possible before anyone could examine it while I watched over it the whole time," Rani explained.

"Please stop talking about such things, Lady Rani. It makes me very uneasy," Lady Jane said.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to calm my friends here down. They think that I've somehow done something wrong by saving you," Rani said.

"Are you sure that you should have? You told me that I would be remembered for hundreds of years before. Will this not change things?" Lady Jane said.

"No. You're still dead as far as history's concerned. I just pulled a fast one on history is all," Rani said as she looked proud of herself.

"I still don't like it. It's not like I want to take her back and let her die, but it just seems like something that you're not supposed to do. It's changing history whether you want to call it that or not. I think that you might cause something bad to happen by saving her," Clyde said unconvinced.

"I won't let her die. I had no choice before but to leave, and it broke my heart. Now though that I'm a Time Lord, I had the power to change it in my hands so I did. I saved this innocent girl's life, and I don't see anything wrong with that. I'd do it again in a heartsbeat," Rani said in a passionate voice.

"I'm on your side, Rani. I promise that I am. I just don't want anything to happen to you for doing this," Clyde said.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. It was worth the risk to save her," Rani said as she kissed Clyde on the cheek.

Clyde blushed and Luke laughed. That shut him up.

"Ladies are definitely more forward in this time than in mine," Lady Jane said as she looked embarrassed as well.

"You'll see a lot of changes for women in this time, Lady Jane. I think that you'll like them," Rani said.

"Are you certain that this won't land you into any trouble with the rest of your people? I would not wish for any calamity to befall you on my account. I also don't wish to die either, however so I was very pleased when you came back to take me to safety in your incredible machine. I just want to say thank you, Lady Rani, and I hope that this doesn't come back to harm you in some way," Lady Jane said.

"Why does everyone keep saying that? Everything's fine. I don't see anything wrong with what I did. I still didn't technically change anything," Rani said.

"Well, just in case we won't tell anyone else about it," Luke said.

"Yeah, I promise that no one will hear about it from me either," Clyde said.

"Thanks. I appreciate that," Rani said.

Then she turned her mind to more pressing matters as she turned to Lady Jane and asked, "We're going to have to start calling you something else, Lady Jane. We can't keep calling you by your old name or keep addressing you as a Lady either. Is there another name that you'd like to be called?"

"What about Anne? Anne Brown," Lady Jane said.

"I like that. Hello, Anne. It's very nice to meet you," Rani said as she shook Lady Jane's hand.

"Thank you, Rani. I suppose that I should drop the Lady from your name as well while I'm in this time," Lady Jane said.

"That sounds like a good idea, Anne," Rani said.

"Where will I stay, and what will I do in this time?" Lady Jane asked.

"You'll stay with me and Henry in my TARDIS. You can go with us wherever we go throughout time and space. Trust me it'll be exciting. You'll get to see alien worlds and other times and places. Isn't that better than having your head chopped off?" Rani asked.

"That's a no-brainer I'd say," Clyde agreed.

"Thank you again, Rani," Lady Jane said as she embraced her.

"You're more than welcome. I'm just glad to give you a second chance at life. You certainly deserve it," Rani said.

Suddenly Rani heard a beeping sound coming from inside of her TARDIS on her remote control which she quickly silenced. She left the museum to go to her TARDIS which was still outside in the shape of a tree in order to go answer it. The second that she went inside her TARDIS, it dematerialized while the others watched through a window inside the museum.

Clyde and Luke looked at each other in shock while Henry started to get upset. Lady Jane meanwhile looked at them all in confusion as if they had an answer as to why Rani had just left so abruptly.

"Where did she go, and why did she leave me here? She always takes me everywhere," Henry said in a scared voice.

"I'm sure she'll be back soon," Luke reassured him.

"Unless the Time Lords found out what she did," Clyde said without thinking.

"Do you think that they did? They wouldn't kill her, would they?" Henry asked as he started to get upset.

"No, I'm sure that it's not that. I'm sure she just had to go somewhere real quick, and she'll be back in no time," Luke said reassuringly as he scowled at Clyde for opening his mouth.

"Yeah, that's right, kid. She'll be back in no time," Clyde said as he joined in with Luke.

Lady Jane said nothing. She felt horrible though because she had a feeling that Rani was in trouble now because of her.

She was right.

Rani's TARDIS materialized inside of a darkened room in a secret part of the Capitol on Gallifrey, and another Time Lord entered her TARDIS with a master key that could open all TARDISes of that particular type. The Time Lord looked at Rani with a malevolent smile on his face.

"Hello, Annika. We know what you did. You deliberately altered history and broke the Laws of Time," the man said as he continued to smile at her.

"What are you going to do?" Rani asked in fear.

"Nothing. As long as you do what we want. We can make sure that no one knows about what you've done as long as you perform some simple missions for us," the man said.

"Who are you? You're not in the government, are you?" Rani asked suspiciously.

"You can call me Mr. Popplewick even though that is obviously not my real name. No, I'm not speaking on the behalf of the High Council or anyone else in the government. I'm speaking for a group above and beyond the government. We answer to no one but ourselves. That's one reason that we're approaching you. You think much the same way as we do it seems," Mr. Popplewick said.

"The Celestial Intervention Agency," Rani said in sudden understanding.

"Yes. We work to ensure that Gallifrey is safe, and that time proceeds in the correct way on our own without answering to anyone. That means that sometimes we may have to break a law or two, but the ends justify the means after all. We see that you too share this same view of time. Join us, Annika, and we will ensure that what you have done is never found out by anyone else. All you will have to do in return is to prevent certain things from happening that would endanger the timestream. They're the kind of things that you would probably stop anyway. Nothing bad or illegal," Mr. Popplewick assured her.

"And if I refuse?" Rani asked.

"Then we tell the High Council what you did, and you will likely be exiled to another planet for the rest of your lives at the bare minimum and that is if you're lucky," Mr. Popplewick said.

"I'll help you, but I won't kill anyone for you if that's what you think," Rani said reluctantly.

"Of course not. We would never think to ask you such a thing. I assure you that our missions are of a benevolent nature. Now go, Annika. Go back to your friends. We'll summon you when we're ready to give you our first mission," Mr. Popplewick said.

He left Rani's TARDIS, and she quickly dematerialized it as she went back to the Museum to get the others. She wasn't sure if she should tell them about this or not. She also wasn't sure if she should go along with it, but what else could she do? Mr. Popplewick, whoever he was, had her over a barrel, and he knew it.

After Rani left, Mr. Popplewick ripped off a mask to reveal the face of the Valeyard underneath. Soon he would have an inside agent right in the Doctor's main camp. Someone that his other self would never suspect was working against him. Rani would never know it herself until it was too late. Then Gallifrey would belong to him and Pandora. Soon Pandora would return, and he would be right there by her side all the way.

**Next: Sarah Jane finds herself right in the middle of an invasion of the Earth by her old foes, the Slitheen. What do they want this time? **

**As for who Pandora is, all will be revealed in coming chapters, and the answer will send a chill through the hearts of all of the Time Lords.**


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

When Rani materialized her TARDIS outside the museum, the second that she stepped out of it she found Henry wrapped around her hugging her tightly. She also saw that Clyde, Luke, and Lady Jane looked very worried about her.

"What happened? Why did you leave that quickly?" Clyde asked.

"Oh, it was nothing. The TARDIS just had some problems, but I fixed them. Everything's fine," Rani lied.

"I thought maybe you had decided to . . . ," Henry started to say before trailing off before he finished.

"I'd never leave you. It's you and me forever," Rani said as she smiled at him reassuringly.

"Really?" Henry asked her.

"Really. I'd get bored without you around. You wouldn't want me to get bored, would you?" Rani said.

"I promise you'll never be bored with me here," Henry said with a big grin all over his face.

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Rani said with a chuckle.

"You'll find that out for yourself very soon, Rani," Sarah Jane said as she walked up to them.

Sarah Jane stopped short when she saw Lady Jane. The two of them stared at each other for a minute and then Sarah Jane asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Ja – I mean I'm Anne. Anne Brown," Lady Jane said nervously.

"Rani, what's going on?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Why do you assume that I know anything about it for?" Rani said as she looked away guiltily.

"You're a Time Lord, and you have a guilty look on your face. I know from personal experience that those two things are never a good combination," Sarah Jane said with a smile.

"Sarah Jane, meet Lady Jane Grey," Rani said in a whisper.

"What?" Sarah Jane asked as she looked at Lady Jane in shock.

"I had to do it. I couldn't leave her there when I had the power to save her," Rani said as she defended herself.

"What if the Time Lords find out?" Sarah Jane asked in a low voice.

"They won't. I hope," Rani said without looking Sarah Jane in the eye.

"Rani, what are you keeping from me?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Nothing. Everything's fine," Rani lied again. She winced because it was so against her nature.

"They already did find out, didn't they?" Sarah Jane asked.

"You lied. You said that it was nothing," Clyde said in anger.

"It wasn't the High Council. It was the Celestial Intervention Agency," Rani said.

"Oh, wonderful! That's even better," Sarah Jane said with dread.

She knew that Rani was in incredible danger now. The Doctor had told her about them once before, and she knew that they were very devious and not to be trusted.

"Who are they?" Luke asked Sarah Jane as he saw the look on his mother's face.

"They're a secret organization that operates independently of the Time Lord government who make sure that history goes as it should by whatever means necessary. They believe that the ends justify the means. They'll do anything no matter how terrible in order to keep the key events in history from changing and the Web of Time from being altered. They're not going to let Lady Jane stay alive no matter what they told you, and I really doubt that they'll keep your secret. They're just blackmailing you into helping them do their dirty work for them, and then they'll turn on you as soon as they're finished using you," Sarah Jane warned.

"I knew that I had gotten you into trouble. I'm so sorry, Rani," Lady Jane said.

"It's not your fault. I did what I did because I wanted to, and now I have to deal with the consequences of it," Rani said.

"What's going to happen to you?" Henry asked in fear.

"Nothing. They said that no one else had to know if I just did a few harmless missions for them," Rani said.

"You don't really believe that, do you?" Sarah Jane asked her with a frown on her face.

"No. Not for a second," Rani admitted.

"You have to tell someone what happened and get some help. You need to go to the Doctor and Rose," Sarah Jane said.

"They'll be exiled or worse if anyone else finds out that they helped me. If I get them involved in this, then I'll get them in hot water with the High Council too. I won't do that to them," Rani said.

"You have to talk to someone," Sarah Jane insisted.

"I don't know what to do. I don't want to get anyone else in trouble. It's one thing to endanger myself, but I don't want to do it to anyone else," Rani said.

"What about us? We know now. Are we in danger?" Clyde asked.

"No. I don't think so. You're not actually helping me so you shouldn't have to worry about it. I'm not so sure what the Celestial Intervention Agency might do though," Rani said.

"From what I've heard of them, they're liable to do anything to clear up any loose ends from one of their missions so that the High Council can't find out what they've been up to. They never leave anything behind that might lead back to them," Sarah Jane said.

"Well, I haven't started working for them yet. I'm going to find a way out of this, Sarah Jane. I promise," Rani said.

"Can you work faster on that because I think that they've just found us?" Clyde said as several cars filled with people pulled up in front of them.

Several heavyset people piled out of the cars and started running towards them. They could hear sounds of flatulence coming from several of them, and they knew right away what they were.

"The Slitheen? Aren't we in enough trouble? We don't have time to worry about them too," Clyde said as he rolled his eyes.

"I don't expect that they care about our other worries, Clyde. What do you want now? Are you here to try to kill us again?" Sarah Jane asked the Slitheen as they quickly surrounded them.

"As enjoyable as that would be, we're here for a much more important reason than simple revenge. We're here to make money. It seems that there is a reward out for the capture of a Bane created boy named Henry. I assume that's you," one of the Slitheen said as he looked at Henry with a cruel smile on his face.

"Mrs. Wormwood must have done this. It has to be her," Sarah Jane said.

"The boy is coming with us. He's worth a lot of money to us. If you don't resist, we'll let you leave here alive," the Slitheen leader, who was dressed in a military officer's outfit, said.

"He's not going anywhere," Rani said.

"I don't think that you're in any position to stop us. I don't see any vinegar on you anywhere," the Slitheen leader said as he mocked them.

"I don't need vinegar," Rani said in a threatening tone.

"Oh, come on! Don't we have enough problems without you risking Kali coming back to kill us all?" Clyde complained.

"Who needs Kali? I'm dangerous enough without her having to be around," Rani said as she pulled a small key out of her pocket.

"What is that? A car key? Are you going to annoy us with your car horn?" the Slitheen leader asked with a mocking laugh.

The other Slitheen laughed along with him while Rani pointed the key at her disguised TARDIS. The TARDIS shifted to its default form at the press of a button, and several gun turrets came out of it. The Slitheen suddenly stopped laughed as they heard the clicks of several guns arming themselves.

"It's the key to my TARDIS. I just activated the weapons on it, and they're all aimed at you," Rani said.

After Sarah Jane frowned at her, she said, "I'm sorry, Sarah Jane. I know you don't believe in using guns, but I'm not going to let them get away with this."

The Slitheen started slowly backing away from them at first, and then that turned into a full out panic as they raced back to their cars. The Slitheen leader shouted, "You can't protect him forever. Sooner or later, we will get him. It won't just be us either. Bounty hunters and others will be coming here soon as well. If not us, someone will get him. Are you really prepared to have that much blood on your hands, Rani Chandra?"

"The name's not Rani. It's Kali. Be sure to tell them that. Kali is back, and she's protecting the boy," Rani said bluffing.

The Slitheen leader paled, and then ran back to the car without speaking. All of them knew exactly just how deadly that Kali was.

After the Slitheen left, everyone stared at Rani as if they were afraid that she was going to start attacking them at any minute. She smiled as them as she said, "I was bluffing. Big time."

Clyde let out a sigh of relief as he said, "I'm glad of that. I was you had winked at me or something and let me know."

"Yeah because that wouldn't have let the Slitheen know that she was faking," Luke joked.

"She could have come up with something," Clyde protested.

"I knew you were bluffing. Kali has different body language from you, and she would never give her protection to Henry. I hope that you were bluffing about the guns too. They're not loaded, are they?" Sarah Jane asked.

"They're not even real guns. Watch," Rani said with a grin.

She pushed a button on the TARDIS remote, and bubbles came out of the 'guns' that started filling the entire area. Rani's friends started laughing at the spectacle as others around them just stared in amazement. Then their audience started laughing and quickly dispersed thinking that the whole incident had just been a publicity stunt of some sort.

"As if I would ever use guns after being around you, Sarah Jane," Rani said.

"Why couldn't you have made them put out ice cream?" Henry said in a disappointed voice.

"Next time I have to bluff my way past the Slitheen, I'll do that," Rani promised with a chuckle.

"Your machine is truly a remarkable device, Rani. I wish that we could just go in it somewhere far away so that those people who would seek to hurt you because of me would not be able to find us," Lady Jane said sadly.

"I don't know that there is such a place really. I do need to find somewhere like that for Henry's sake though," Rani said.

"That Slitheen was right. They won't be the only ones after Henry. Mrs. Wormwood was being very smart. She said that she'd get him one way or another. She couldn't have thought of a better way really. Maybe both of you could go stay with an old friend of mine," Sarah Jane suggested.

"Who's that?" Rani asked.

"K'anpo Rimpoche. I'm sure that he'll be glad to help both of you. He hid from the other Time Lords on Ice World for years so that he couldn't be dragged into the Time War. I think that you should be safe from being found there. Even if you are, K'anpo can protect you. I'll go with you. I haven't seen him in a long time. I'd love to catch up with him," Sarah Jane offered.

"I've heard of him from Cliodna. She used to go see him along with Selene. I never met him myself though. Maybe I should see him anyway. He may be able to help me get rid of Kali somehow," Rani said in a hopeful voice.

"He might," Sarah Jane said with a sneaky smile.

Rani wondered if that had been her ulterior motive for sending her to him in the first place. She was always one step ahead of Rani it seemed. Even now, she still felt like a kid next to Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane had only lived one life, and yet she was infinitely smarter than she was even though she had lived for hundreds of years. She was so glad to have her as her friend and as someone that she could turn to when she needed some helpful advice.

"I say that we should all go see him together since all of our heads seem to be on the chopping block for being friends of Henry," Clyde said.

"I'm sorry for all of this. I never meant to get so many people in trouble. I just wanted more out of life than being some ultimate weapon," Henry said.

"I can't blame you, Henry. Mrs. Wormwood tried to do that to me, and I left her too. If it wasn't for Sarah Jane and Maria, I don't know where I'd be right now," Luke said.

"Maria?" Henry asked.

"She was a friend of mine who used to help us fight off alien invasions. She left to go to America because of her dad's job," Luke said sadly.

"She was Luke's girlfriend," Clyde teased him.

"She was not," Luke said.

"You wanted her to be," Clyde said.

Luke said nothing, and Clyde smiled in triumph.

"If anyone would know about wanting someone as your girlfriend and not telling them, you would," Rani shot back.

Luke smiled as Clyde said, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think you know," Rani said.

Sarah Jane cleared her throat as she said, "I think that we should go see K'anpo right away before someone else comes to attack us."

"I'm with you. Let's all get into the TARDIS. I have a little stop that I want to make first on the way there though," Rani said as she switched its outward appearance back into a tree.

"Where is that?" Sarah Jane asked in surprise.

"I'm going to talk to someone who can help me just as you suggested," Rani said.

Sarah Jane was pleased that she had taken her advice and wondered just who she had decided to go to. She was surprised and yet not totally shocked when she finally saw who it was. Rani's choice made sense in hindsight after all.

Rani parked her TARDIS at UNIT HQ where she met with Marissa. Sarah Jane knew why she had chosen her. Marissa was Kali's sister. If anything happened to Rani, then she would lose what was left of her sister forever. Also there was probably another reason. Sarah Jane guessed that Marissa felt as if she should help Rani because Kali had ruined her life for so long.

"So you changed history? The old me would be proud of you, but this me just has to ask you something. What were you thinking?" Marissa asked in disbelief after Rani explained the whole situation to her.

"I know that I shouldn't have done it, but I don't think that I should let this Mr. Popplewick blackmail me over it," Rani said.

"Mr. Popplewick? Is he still going by that name?" Marissa asked as she started to laugh.

"So you know who he is then?" Rani asked.

"Oh, yes. It's the Valeyard. He used that name a long time ago as an alias. The Doctor told me about it once," Marissa said.

"He's trying to manipulate me into being his pawn against the Doctor," Rani said in anger.

"Yes. He's up to something lately. He just keeps popping up everywhere ever since someone broke him out of Shada. Now he's dragged you into his schemes. Don't worry about it, Rani. Go on to Ice World and let K'anpo help you with Henry. I'll see what I can do about the Valeyard, and maybe I can even think of something to get you off of the hook for breaking the Laws of Time. It'll be fun I think," Marissa said with a smile.

"What could be fun about all of this?" Rani asked in confusion.

"I mean going after the Doctor again will be fun. In a way, that's what I am going to be doing by going after the Valeyard. I think it will be just like old times. I've been around Koschei too much lately I think," Marissa said with a sigh.

"Thank you, Ushas," Rani said.

"Don't mention it. I just want one thing from you for helping you. If K'anpo can help you get my sister out of your mind, then please try to put her in some kind of Matrix so that I don't lose her. I know that she's done a lot of terrible things, but she's still my sister," Marissa said with a sad look on her face.

"I'll do that if I possibly can. I promise," Rani said.

"Please help her, Miss. She only did it to help me. If it will keep her from being executed, I'll gladly go back to die," Lady Jane pleaded as she suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"No!" Rani said as she looked at Marissa in fear that she might agree with that idea.

"I don't think it will come to that. I really don't see what harm it will do to leave you alive as long as you're in this time instead of your own," Marissa reassured both of them.

"I just don't want anything to happen to her because of me," Lady Jane said in an upset tone.

"I'll do my best to see that that doesn't happen. I have an idea of the perfect person to go to in order to get you out of this, Rani," Marissa said with a grin.

"Who?" Rani asked.

"Amy. She'll threaten to pull her family's money out of the planetary budget; and if that doesn't work, she'll just threaten them period. You know how she is. Neither of us will let them do anything to you, Rani, if we can help it. I promise," Marissa reassured both women.

After that, Rani and the others went off to Ice World to find K'anpo. She hoped that bringing Henry there would keep him and the rest of them safe until they could find Mrs. Wormwood and get her to call off the price on his head.

She would find out that things were not going to go smoothly for either her or Henry.

**Next: Sarah Jane and Rani talk to K'anpo while bounty hunters and mercenaries come out of the woodwork trying to find Henry. This becomes such a problem on Earth, even though Henry's not there anymore, that a new agent is sent from UNIT to investigate the problem. Her name is Maria Jackson. Oh and the Valeyard shows his nasty face again because our little group don't have enough problems to deal with.**


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

"Where is the Bane child named Henry Barnes? Bring him to me so that I may collect the reward on his head!" Kildridge the Mighty, formerly Kildridge the Undefeated until he had to change his name after he came across a Time Lady named Lily Wright, shouted.

"I'm afraid that he's not here, sir. We have no idea where the boy is now. Will you please go away?" a rather bored sounding UNIT soldier said.

It had been the same thing all day today. Hired assassins like Kildridge, bounty hunters, or worse had been showing up all day to drive the soldiers at UNIT HQ crazy searching for Henry since this was one of his last known locations. Some of the beings that came here were very dangerous and had to be dealt with accordingly, and some of them were more incredibly annoying than they were deadly like Kildridge.

Kildridge had been extremely dangerous once, but he was more bluster than bite these days since he had his rear handed to him by Lily and had his self-confidence utterly destroyed. Now he was a shell of the man that he had once been since spending time in a Zygon prison. This was where he planned on reestablishing his reputation though. This was where he would become a name to be feared once more!

"Excuse me," a young woman said as she pushed past Kildridge like he wasn't even there.

The woman walked up to the UNIT Guard and said with a warm smile, "Hello, I'm Maria Jackson. I was asked to come here and report to Colonel Mace."

"Yes, Miss Jackson. I have your name on my list. Go right in. The Colonel is waiting to see you," the guard said.

"Wait a minute here! You'll let this girl in, but you won't allow me inside?" Kildridge protested.

"She has an appointment to be here. If you'd like to make an appointment, I'm sure that we can accommodate you. Our next available time is tomorrow at 8 AM. Is that good for you?" the guard said.

"What?! You can't talk to me this way! I am Kildridge the Mighty! I will not be denied!" Kildridge screamed.

Maria looked at Kildridge with a smile as she said, "Why don't you just go home? The boy's not here. Knowing Sarah Jane he's probably not even on Earth anymore. She's probably got the Doctor or some other Time Lord protecting him now. She's the Doctor's friend you know," Maria said.

"The Doctor? The same Doctor who is the son-in-law of L-L-L-L-Lily!" Kildridge said as he began to shake all over as if he was in the middle of an earthquake.

"I do believe that's her name, sir. She was just here very recently. She often visits this base," the guard said.

"Lily comes here?!" Kildridge asked in complete terror.

"That's right. So you'd better watch out, or we'll call her and let her know that you're here," Maria said with a chuckle.

Kildridge turned pale and started to sway back and forth on his feet. Then he passed out and hit the ground with an enormous boom! Maria giggled at him and then went inside the base without a backwards glance.

The guard then called out behind him, "There's an unconscious alien at the gate, sir. What shall I do with him?"

"Call the Doctor. He'll take care of him. There's a good fellow," a voice answered him from inside.

The guard suddenly developed a malicious smile on his face as he decided to call Lily instead. That would teach this bugger to come here and bother him on the weekend.

Maria walked in to Colonel Mace's office and sat down outside as she waited to be announced. She had to admit that she was a little nervous. This was her first real job at UNIT. She had joined and passed all of the courses while meeting all of the qualifications without even mentioning Sarah Jane's name.

Somehow Colonel Mace had found out about her connection to Sarah Jane anyway and had personally asked for her to come here. He had told her about the current situation involving Henry over the phone and had asked her to come back to London in order to be his official UNIT representative in this matter. Basically since she was Sarah Jane's friend, he wanted her to ask Sarah Jane to help get all of these attacking aliens who were looking for Henry off of their backs.

This was fine by her. She enjoyed any excuse that would allow her to see Sarah Jane again. She met with the Colonel, and he briefed her on the situation while officially giving her the job. Then he set her loose with instructions to find Sarah Jane and talk to her immediately.

Maria then traveled to Sarah Jane's house and knocked on the door. She frowned when after several knocks on the door no one answered. She hated to do it, but she would have to use her old key to the front door to let herself in. She had orders after all.

Maria opened the door and then locked it back behind her. She was sure that Sarah Jane would forgive her for this. At least she hoped so anyway.

She searched everywhere but could find no trace of anyone in the house. She finally went up to the attic and found no one there either. She only had one way of finding her left now. She just hoped that he was in a good mood.

"Mr. Smith, I need you!" Maria called out as she hoped that it still worked for her.

Mr. Smith instantly came out of his hiding place inside of the attic wall as he said, "Greetings, Maria Jackson. It's been a long time since I've seen you. I trust that you are well."

"I'm fine. How are you doing?" Maria asked.

"Quite well, Maria. I assume that you're here to see Sarah Jane and not to inquire about my health, however," Mr. Smith said coming to the point.

"I actually was wondering how you were doing, Mr. Smith. Now that you mention it though, I'm here to find Sarah Jane as well. There's something that I need to talk to her about right away. Where is she?" Maria asked.

"She is no longer on Earth. She is on a spaceship named Ice World that is currently in orbit around this planet," Mr. Smith informed her.

"Why am I not surprised? Is there any way that you can contact her and let her know that I'm here. UNIT wants me to talk to her. There are tons of assassins and bounty hunters crawling all over Earth looking for Henry Barnes and causing trouble. UNIT wants her to do something about that. I just wanted an excuse to talk to her again personally," Maria admitted with a warm smile.

"I can contact Rani if you wish. She may be able to come here shortly and collect you," Mr. Smith offered.

Maria looked at him oddly since she knew nothing about Rani being a Time Lady as she said, "Rani can come here and collect me? Since when?"

"I'll tell her that you're here," Mr. Smith said without answering her.

Seconds later, Maria was shocked as a large tree appeared in the middle of the attic. She recognized the sound accompanying it as the sound of a TARDIS materializing. She had never met the Doctor, but she had studied everything about him and the other Time Lords that UNIT had available. She wondered which Time Lord this was and what their connection was to Sarah Jane.

As soon as the TARDIS finished materializing, the doors opened, and Maria cautiously stepped inside of it. Finding Rani at the controls of this TARDIS was definitely not what she had expected to see when she had walked inside.

Rani looked just as surprised as she was as she said, "Maria? Maria Jackson?"

"Mr. Smith didn't tell you about me?" Maria asked.

"No, he didn't. He just said that someone from UNIT needed to talk to Sarah Jane. I bet that was his idea of a joke," Rani said.

"Why would that be funny?" Maria asked.

"I used to be a little jealous of you, that's why," Rani admitted.

"You're the one piloting a TARDIS, Rani. I'm the one that's jealous right now. How did you persuade some Time Lord to let you do this?" Maria asked as she looked around her in awe.

"It was kind of easy actually. I happen to be very close to the Time Lord who owns this particular TARDIS," Rani said with a grin as she began to put in the coordinates for Ice World into the console.

"Really? You must be in order to get them to trust you enough to fly it by yourself," Maria said as she continued to look at the TARDIS interior with wide eyes.

The TARDIS landed inside of K'anpo's room, and Maria and Rani saw Sarah Jane and K'anpo talking as soon as they went out the TARDIS doors. Sarah Jane didn't even look up to see who Rani had brought because she was too absorbed in her conversation with K'anpo. The two of them were old friends from the days when she used to travel with the Doctor so they had both been trading stories about their lives since then to each other non-stop ever since she had arrived here. She was now completely absorbed in listening to K'anpo tell her about how he had first met Mel and Glitz and hadn't even noticed Rani returning.

K'anpo, however, noticed the two new arrivals immediately and said, "Sarah Jane, I believe we have some company."

"What? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even notice. You know I've been around Time Lords too long when a TARDIS suddenly appearing in front of me doesn't even get my attention anymore," Sarah Jane said laughing without even looking at who her visitor from UNIT was yet.

"Hello, Sarah Jane," Maria said.

Sarah Jane immediately recognized her voice and now turned to look at her with eyes filled with joy. She ran to Maria and hugged her tightly as she said, "It's so good to see you again, Maria!"

Those old feelings of jealousy came bubbling up to the surface again for Rani as she looked at the two of them together. She knew that it was petty and stupid, but she couldn't help it. She was very close to Sarah Jane and the rest of her friends, and she hated to think of anyone taking her place with them. She suddenly thought to herself that she had no reason to be jealous and that she was the epitome of the word cool since she was a Time Lord. She smiled as she thought to herself that she must have been around the Doctor too long.

"I was so proud to hear about you making it through UNIT, Maria. It was hoping that you'd get assigned to England so that I could see you again," Sarah Jane said.

"You knew?" Maria asked.

"Of course I did. I know just about everything that's going on in UNIT whether they think that I do or not. I have my ways. So did they send you to ask about Henry, is that it?" Sarah Jane guessed.

"Yeah, they did, Sarah Jane. It's not just to ask about him though. It's to see if you can do something about all of these aliens coming to Earth looking for him. They're causing a lot of headaches among the top brass," Maria said.

"I was hoping that would stop once we brought Henry here. I guess not. It seems that if you wave enough money in their faces that some people will never give up trying to collect it. I really wish that we could find Mrs. Wormwood so that we could get her to call this bounty off of Henry's head," Sarah Jane said.

"What makes you think that you could convince her to do that even if you could find her?" Maria asked.

"I could convince her I assure you," Rani said in an angry voice.

"I said that I don't want you using your powers again, Rani," Sarah Jane said.

"I might have to risk it, Sarah Jane. I won't let them get my s . . . Henry. I'll rip them apart with my bare hands first before I let them anywhere near him!" Rani said as she suddenly erupted in anger.

Sarah Jane looked at Rani in surprise. She knew that Rani had developed a close bond with Henry, but she didn't know that she felt that strongly about him. She had no idea.

K'anpo immediately spoke up then as he tried to defuse the situation by saying, "I assure you that he's safe here, Annika. I have him in the most secure area of this ship. No one can even detect his presence here if I don't want them to. The greatest danger to him at the moment is Kali. Why don't you let me try to get her out of your mind?"

Maria looked confused as she said, "Okay, I know that Rani is a Time Lord but who is Kali?"

Rani looked at her with a smile as she said, "I didn't fool you for a minute, did I?"

"No, of course not. You know how to pilot a TARDIS much too well to be human. Therefore, you must have been a hidden Time Lord who discovered who you really were not too long ago. Am I right?" Maria asked.

Rani had an impressed look on her face as she said, "Right on the mark. My name's Annika, but you can still call me Rani if you want. I'm pretty attached to that name. Kali is another Time Lord who's trapped in my mind. She's not as friendly as I am."

"Is she dangerous?" Maria asked in alarm.

"Extremely but I have complete control over her," Rani said with a slight hint of hesitation in her voice.

"I feel so much better now," Maria said as she noticed Rani's uncertainty.

"Maria, you can't tell UNIT about this. If you do, they might do something horrible to Rani. Rani does have her under her control unless she uses Kali's powers, and she's not going to do that anymore. Are you, Rani?" Sarah Jane said firmly.

"No, Sarah Jane. Of course not. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that earlier. I'm just worried about Henry. I promise I won't use them," Rani said.

"You'd better not, or I'm going to be very cross with you if Kali kills me," Sarah Jane said.

"I would never let her. I'd use up all of my regenerations instantly and kill myself first," Rani said firmly.

"It won't come to that, Rani. I know it won't," Sarah Jane said softly.

"The burden of having someone as murderous and insane as Kali in your mind would be too much for anyone to bear. Let me try to help you, Annika. Despite what you may have heard, I am pretty good at this sort of thing," K'anpo said with a grin.

"Alright," Rani said reluctantly.

"We need to go to the prison area of the ship. Its walls are heavily reinforced and virtually inescapable; and if I have to, I can lock us inside of it in case anything goes wrong," K'anpo said.

"You're making me feel so much better," Rani said with a frown as she followed him out of the room.

"Is she going to be alright?" Maria asked after Rani and K'anpo left.

"I think so. She's very strong, and she has incredible willpower. She was that way even before she became a Time Lord again," Sarah Jane said confidently.

"Sarah Jane, I have to tell you something. I always want to be honest with you," Maria said as her mood suddenly darkened considerably.

"What is it?" Sarah Jane asked as she noticed this sudden change in her young friend.

"I wasn't just sent here about Henry, Sarah Jane. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I can't keep secrets from you. I won't," Maria said as she looked at her guiltily.

"What's bothering you, Maria? You can tell me," Sarah Jane prodded her.

"I was also sent to find out more about Rani. Someone, I wasn't told who, told UNIT several things about her. They claimed that she was dangerous, and that she might represent a threat to the world. They don't know that she's a Time Lord though, and they have no idea that Kali even exists as far as I know. I was sent to gather information on Rani to see if she was really dangerous or not, and then make a recommendation about what UNIT should do about her. I think that they sent me because they knew that you would trust me and not be suspicious of me. Maybe it was a test for me too to see who I would be more loyal to, you or them. I guess I failed that test already, but I can't betray you. I can't," Maria said.

"You didn't fail anything as far as I'm concerned, Maria. You passed with flying colors. What are you going to do about Rani then?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I'm not going to tell them anything about her. We'll solve this problem ourselves just like we used to do back in the old days," Maria said with a smile.

"That's my girl," Sarah Jane said as she hugged her.

"Oh, drat. There goes my plans down the drain," the Valeyard said in a voice filled with mock concern as he suddenly appeared in the room with them.

"Who is that?" Maria asked.

"That's the Valeyard, Maria. He's the Doctor's dark side. I never would have believed that the man I know him to be would have such a foul thing inside of him, but I suppose we all do whether we care to admit it or not," Sarah Jane said.

"Oh, how poetic, Sarah Jane! I think you missed your calling. You should have become a poet instead of a journalist. I played you all like a finely tuned instrument. I went to UNIT in disguise and told them some vague story about the threat that Rani represents to humanity knowing that they would send someone to spy on her. I then followed that spy until they led me straight to Sarah Jane and Rani," the Valeyard said.

"Why? So that you can threaten to blackmail Rani some more if she doesn't work for you? Yes, I know it was you. Marissa told us. She knows all about what you did now," Sarah Jane said.

"I know. I anticipated that as well. I knew that Rani would go to her since she is Kali's sister and would be the least likely to betray her to the High Council because of that, and I knew that Ushas would beg Rani to have her sister removed from her mind and saved somehow. I know Ushas like a book, Sarah Jane. We're old acquaintances after all. I also knew that Rani was most likely to come to K'anpo to get Kali taken out of her mind especially if I gave her a little extra incentive," the Valeyard said smiling smugly.

"It wasn't Mrs. Wormwood who put the bounty on Henry! It was you!" Sarah Jane suddenly realized.

"Correct, Sarah Jane. You always were the smartest of my companions. I knew that would give Rani, who obviously has maternal feelings for the boy, an extra reason to come to K'anpo in order to protect him from all of the scum of the universe that have come after him. The end result of all of that planning is exactly as I anticipated. Rani is now alone with K'anpo in a sealed off part of this ship. She'll be lowering her defenses in order to let him attempt to take Kali out of her mind even as we speak. That is when my new friend will strike when Rani is at her weakest and most vulnerable state," the Valeyard said as he began to laugh.

"What are you up to? What are you going to do to Rani?" Sarah Jane asked.

"My new friend wants new recruits to add to her cause especially recruits that need a new body once more. These recruits will then feel indebted to her and do whatever she asks of them. Imagine having Kali on our side," the Valeyard said with an evil smirk.

"You're insane. Kali won't work for you or your 'new friend' whoever that is. She has no loyalty to anyone," Sarah Jane protested.

"You don't know my new friend, Sarah Jane. She can be very persuasive. I'm sure that she's in there even now freeing Kali while I'm standing here distracting you. No one is going to help Rani this time. Kali is ours now," the Valeyard said.

"I have to admit that you did plan this out pretty well, but you forgot about one thing," a voice suddenly said behind the Valeyard.

The Valeyard twirled around and hissed as he said, "You!"

He was then knocked out cold with a solid punch to the head.

"You have no idea how much I'd like to do that to the real Doctor sometimes," Amy said with a huge grin on her face.

"We have to help Rani," Sarah Jane said.

"Yeah, I know. I heard the whole story. I came here to tell her that what she did is okay with the High Council since history wasn't technically changed. I smoothed it over with them. We all came to a nice little agreement with each other as I managed to persuade them that what Rani did really wasn't that bad. It probably didn't hurt that I threatened to stop giving them money for the rest of my lives either. She doesn't have to worry about them anymore. I had no idea that it was never about that at all though. Let's go. I just hope that whoever the Valeyard's new friend is hasn't already arrived yet," Amy said as the three of them raced to the prison area of the ship.

As soon as they got there, Amy tried her sonic screwdriver on the main door to the prison area and sighed in frustration.

"It's deadlock sealed. I can't get in," Amy said.

"Great. Rani and K'anpo are all alone in there then. Anything could be happening," Sarah Jane said.

"Wait a minute! Surely someone else besides K'anpo must know how to get in there. Is there anyone else who he'd trust with that knowledge?" Maria asked.

"Mel! I'm sure she knows. We've got to find her," Sarah Jane said.

As the three of them raced off to find K'anpo's friend and companion, K'anpo was even then attempting to enter Rani's mind in order to drive Kali out of it. He was going to attempt to move Kali's mind from Rani's body into a waiting mini Matrix that he had sitting nearby as Marissa had requested. Rani had already put herself into a trance and completely cleared the way for him so that he could proceed directly into her brain without any problems.

There was one problem that he hadn't even thought of though. One that he had never even suspected existed.

K'anpo was taken completely by surprise as a woman in a black hood and cloak appeared right in front of him out of nowhere. She immediately knocked him out cold with a single gesture of her hand as her eyes glowed red for a moment.

"Now that he's taken care of, it's just you and me, Kali. I've come to make you an offer that I don't think that you'll refuse. At least not if you ever want to have a body again," the woman said with an evil laugh.

_Who are you?_ The woman in black heard in her mind.

"Little old me? Why, I'm the Black Guardian, Kali. I'm the new and improved not to mention much better looking one. Do you know that's the first time I've ever called myself that? It feels good. It just feels so right. It fits me like a glove. It's as if I've been waiting for this moment my whole life, Kali. You have no idea just how long that is. I'm sure that you couldn't even begin to imagine. That doesn't matter now anyway. What does matter is this. Will you join me? I can give you a new body again with unlimited regenerations. Well? What do you say?" The new Black Guardian said out loud to Kali.

_What's the catch? I'm sure you're not doing this out of the kindness of your heart. _Kali responded skeptically.

"I want you to serve me of course. Well, really I honestly don't care even if you don't. You'll be serving my cause even if you just use your newfound life to spread fear and terror through the universe just like you did before. It amuses me actually to think about you doing exactly that. That's another reason that I feel like I was born to this role, Kali. I love to cause trouble and chaos wherever I go. It's why I had that little argument with Rassilon so long ago. He and I didn't exactly see eye to eye over that sort of thing, you know? So what's your answer? Do you want a body or not? Do you want to spend the rest of eternity in a mini Matrix, or do you want to go out there and just be you again doing what you do best? It's a one-time offer, Kali. It's only on the table for a limited time only. Going, going . . . ," The Black Guardian said in an amused voice.

"Of course I want a body. Free me and I'll cause trouble like you've never seen," Kali promised.

"Oh, I was so hoping that you'd say that," the Black Guardian said with a large smile on her face as she began to remove Kali from Rani's mind.

**Next: Kali is set free! Will she serve the new Black Guardian or does she have an agenda all her own? **


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

Mel finally let Sarah Jane, Maria, and Amy inside of the prison area only to find that they were already too late. K'anpo was lying unconscious on the floor while Rani still lay there motionless in a trance. It was obvious that Kali was gone now, and the Valeyard's plan had succeeded.

"K'anpo! Are you alright?" Mel asked tenderly as she gently shook him awake.

"I'm always alright whenever I wake up looking at you," K'anpo said as he kissed her.

"He looks alright to me," Amy said with a grin.

Rani, however, would not wake up no matter how much Sarah Jane tried to rouse her.

"Amy, is she alright? Can you tell?" Sarah Jane asked.

Amy placed her hands on Rani's head and nodded as she said, "Yeah, she's fine, Sarah Jane. She's very weak though. It seems that the BG removed Kali in a really rough way and didn't care how it affected Annika. She's put her mind through a lot."

As the four women continued to check on Rani and K'anpo, the Valeyard woke up alone and decided to escape while he still could. He had anticipated running into one of Sarah Jane's friends on his way out, but he had never anticipated the sudden appearance of the being that now stood in front of him blocking his way.

"All attempts to leave will be unsuccessful. You will remain here until you have been properly dealt with just as the Mistress has ordered," K-9 said.

"I'm the one giving the orders here, and I order you to move, K-9. I am your master. You will listen to me," the Valeyard said.

"Incorrect. You are not the Doctor Master. You are only a part of him. You are not the complete Doctor Master, and therefore your orders will not be accepted," K-9 said.

"Stupid machine! Move out of my way or I will destroy you!" the Valeyard shouted.

"Unlikely. You have no weapons, and you have been taken by complete surprise by my sudden appearance. My conclusion then is that you have no way to destroy me, or you would have already done so," K-9 said.

"Stubbornness is not a good quality to have. I was attempting to be merciful for old time's sake, but I see that was a mistake," the Valeyard said.

Suddenly he looked up behind K-9 and said in a surprised voice, "Doctor, what are you doing here?"

K-9 was distracted just for a second, but that second was long enough for the Valeyard to pull out a sonic screwdriver and use it to shut the robot down. He raced off down the corridors of Ice World with a huge laugh as he was sure that he had successfully escaped now.

He was wrong.

A woman that he hadn't seen in hundreds of years now blocked the way to the transmat that he had hoped to get out of the ship with. She seemed to be enjoying his sudden irritation immensely.

"Hello, Fake Theta. I see you're trying to run away like the coward that you are. Amy thought that you might try something like this so she asked me to come along just in case. Aren't you glad?" Selene, Amy's sister, said with an enormous grin on her face.

"Get out of my way!"

"Not likely. Care to take me on in a fair fight?" Selene asked.

"Who wants to play fair? Fair is boring," the Black Guardian said as she knocked Selene out from behind with a touch of her hand to her head.

"You know you really are the best possible match for me. I don't know why I never realized that," the Valeyard said just before he gave her a passionate kiss.

The Black Guardian pulled away from the kiss and wrapped her arm around him protectively as she said, "It's because you were an idiot is my own personal theory. It's time to go now. Mission accomplished. Kali is free."

"Not so fast. I want to know where Kali is," Rani said in a severely weakened voice from behind them.

They turned to see Rani, Sarah Jane, Maria, and Amy watching them. The Black Guardian actually laughed and seemed completely unconcerned.

"What do you care? You're free of her now. I thought you'd be thanking me for that," she said.

"You thought wrong. I want to know where she is," Rani demanded.

"I want to know what you did to my sister. I don't care how powerful you are. If you've hurt her, I'll put my foot where the sun doesn't shine!" Amy threatened.

"Believe it or not, she'll be fine, Cliodna. I'm not a heartless monster. I don't kill for no good reason. Usually," the Black Guardian said.

"Who are you?" Rani asked.

"I'm no one that you've ever met before, Annika. Although I certainly know a lot about all of you," the Black Guardian said mysteriously as the Valeyard laughed.

"What's the joke, Valeyard?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Joke?" the Valeyard asked as he tried to play innocent.

"I know the Doctor very well. So I always knew when he was hiding something or when he was laughing because he secretly found something amusing. What's so funny?" Sarah Jane asked perceptively.

"The Black Guardian's true identity. It's amusing me greatly that none of you know it and could probably never figure it out in a thousand years," the Valeyard said truthfully.

"Let's not mock them, Theta. They can't help it that their brains are so small and limited," the Black Guardian said with a chuckle.

"I'll show you small!" Amy threatened as she started towards her with her fists clenched.

"I'm getting bored with you already, Cliodna. Don't make me bored, Cliodna. I do very nasty things when I'm bored," the Black Guardian threatened in a low voice.

A young woman with long dark hair suddenly appeared next to Amy and punched her in the jaw knocking her out cold. Sarah Jane looked at her in shock as she realized who this new arrival must be.

"Kali, I presume?" Sarah Jane asked.

"You're right on the mark, Sarah Jane, as usual. Do you like my new body? I think I look pretty good myself," Kali said as she looked at herself appraisingly.

"I'm sure that you have things here well in hand, Kali. I'll let you take care of them for me. The little people are just simply too boring for me to have to deal with," the Black Guardian said as she quickly vanished along with the Valeyard.

"The little people?!" Sarah Jane said with her expression a cross between amusement and irritation.

"She's a bit of a smug condescending egotist, isn't she? I suppose you could consider me ungrateful after she just gave me a new body, but I can't help but heavily dislike her. Maybe it was from being a part of Rani too long, but I actually prefer you better, Sarah Jane," Kali said.

"Is that why you haven't killed us yet?" Maria asked.

"Maria," Sarah Jane said in a warning tone.

"Oh, let her speak, Sarah Jane. She's right after all. If I didn't have a soft spot for all of you, I'd have killed you all long ago," Kali said.

"Why do you have a soft spot for us? I would have thought that you'd have killed me at least now that you're finally free of me," Rani said.

"Don't tempt me, Annika. I did just save all of your lives after all. She was going to kill all of you," Kali said.

"Why? Would you do that?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Always asking the right questions, aren't you?" Kali said with a smile.

"You still didn't answer her question," Maria said boldly.

"I like you, Maria Jackson. You're very brave or at least you do a very good job at hiding your fear anyway," Kali said.

"How do you know who I am?" Maria asked.

"I know everything that Annika knew. We did share a mind for a very long time after all," Kali said.

"I notice that you're still managing to avoid answering my question," Sarah Jane reminded her.

"She doesn't think that I know who she's helping but I know, Sarah Jane. The Valeyard's mind is an open book to me even though he doesn't know it. He actually thinks that his mind is unreadable. The arrogance! Both of them are helping the Celestial Intervention Agency. They want to help them take over Gallifrey. I won't allow that. Not because I care anything about those doddering old fools in the High Council, but because the Celestial Intervention Agency are the ones who experimented on me and tortured me. They also made sure that I was executed despite my sister's protests because I wouldn't agree to serve as a body for their precious Pandora, the former Lady President of Gallifrey who tried to make herself dictator for life in the distant past until she was executed just as I was. Also just like me, she survived. She survives even now unknown to everyone. I would never work for someone who would help them.

Apparently, she didn't take that into consideration or else she didn't think that I was smart enough or powerful enough to find out. Or maybe she's just so arrogant that she thinks that I don't care about anything except for mindless chaos like she does. Whatever the reason, I'm going to help stop her and them from getting what they want even as I pretend to help them. I can always kill all of you later. Right now, you may all prove more useful to me alive," Kali finally admitted.

"Are you sure it's not just that you fancy us?" Clyde joked as he, Luke, Lady Jane Grey, Henry, and a repaired K-9 who had been found and fixed by Luke on the way there all suddenly appeared.

"You're always the jokester, Mr. Langer, aren't you? Right now though, you're terrified of me. Not for yourself so much as for your friends and in particular, the woman that you love," Kali said as she smiled at him malevolently.

"Well, you've gotten more out of him than I ever have," Rani said indignantly.

"It helps if you actually read his mind instead of being all high-minded and refusing to like some people," Kali said.

Amy suddenly woke up as she said, "Enough playing around, Kali. Tell us what you're up to."

"I'd love to know that too. That and where I can get something besides an aspirin for this huge headache that bus made when it hit me," Selene joked as she too woke up.

"Oh, I show a little mercy in saving all of your lives, and suddenly everyone is so bold and demanding. Then again I expected nothing less from you, Cliodna. You always were quick to run off at the mouth," Kali said in amusement.

"Something doesn't make sense here. If she was going to kill us anyway, why didn't she kill Selene?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I'm not complaining," Selene said as she rubbed her head.

"It's because you stopped being amusing, Sarah Jane. When Cliodna started threatening her, she became bored and decided to kill you all. She was going to leave you alive longer until then. She likes the idea of having someone around to torture," Kali explained.

"You mean she wanted to kill us just because she got bored with us?" Clyde asked unbelieving.

"Yes," Kali said.

"What's to stop her from coming back and finishing the job when she finds out that you haven't then?" Luke asked.

"I imagine she's forgotten all about you now. It's just like she told all of you. You're the little people to her. All that matters to her are two people. They're all that's ever mattered to her really. Everyone and everything else are unimportant. You're all just means to an end to her and nothing else," Kali said.

"You know who she is, don't you?" Sarah Jane realized.

"Yes, I do. She's the last person that any of you would ever think of I can tell you that much. Keep your head down and keep a low profile, Sarah Jane, and you may survive. As for me, I'm off to pretend to be one of her flunkies as much as that makes me cringe. I have to find out exactly what she's up to so that I can put a complete stop to it with the most efficiency," Kali said.

"I still think you just fancy us, and don't want to admit it," Clyde joked.

Kali gestured at him, and he screamed in agony as she caused immense pain to his mind. She continued to apply more and more pressure to his brain until he thought that it would explode.

Then to both Kali and Clyde's surprise, Rani shoved Kali against the wall with a telekinetic shove that caused her to lose her concentration and broke her hold on him. Kali actually smiled as she realized that Rani still had powers even though she was gone now.

"Well, well, well! It looks like someone's just developed powers of their own. Could it be that being exposed to my powers helped trigger your own latent abilities, Annika? That's a question to ponder some other time, isn't it?" Kali said.

"Leave Clyde alone, or we'll find out just how powerful that I am now together as I use my new abilities to split your skull apart!" Rani threatened.

"Oh, I love it! Little Rani's gotten an attitude now that she's got herself some new skills! Aren't you the bold one?" Kali said amused.

"Get out of here and leave us alone," Rani said with renewed strength.

"Don't be so quick to turn me away, Annika. I may be your greatest ally in what lies ahead. They'll come for you sooner or later once they discover that you're a threat to them. They're going to be coming for all of you. They've already proven what they can do to all of your lives when they want something. They turned them all upside down! That was just them getting started. Watch yourselves. I certainly intend to watch out for myself," Kali said.

Then she swiftly walked away as she went to her new TARDIS which was parked nearby. She had managed to liberate herself one when she awoke in her new body back on Gallifrey. She did owe the Black Guardian a great deal for that, but she owed the Celestial Intervention Agency even more. She would not let them get away with what they did to her and especially not for what they did to her sister.

She still remembered the horrified look on Ushas' face when she thought that they had killed her. She would make them pay for that. All of them! Especially Pandora and Braxiatel.

She knew that Braxiatel was still alive. She had learned that from the Valeyard as well. No mind could keep secrets from her. Around her, everyone's mind was an open book no matter how well protected that they thought it was. She was quite simply the best at what she did.

She would pretend to be helping the Black Guardian with her little plan while all the while she was really helping herself to gain her revenge on them. They would never even see it coming because they didn't realize that she knew that they were even involved in it.

One day, they would realize it though. They would finally understand the truth to their horror on the day that she brought their entire world crashing down around them just as they had hers. Just as they had to Ushas.

"Clyde, are you alright?" Rani said as she helped him up off of the ground with a concerned look on her face.

"I'm fine. I think that I'm going to join Selene in a call for some of that pain medicine though. I really need about three or four hundred of them for this headache that I've got," Clyde said.

She then surprised him when she gave him a quick kiss on the lips as she said, "If you ever do something that stupid again, I'll kill you myself!"

"I guess I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry," Clyde said in a pain-filled voice.

"Your brain will stop feeling like it's on fire soon, Clyde. Right now, it's just numb from all of the trauma that it's just been through. Soon the real pain will begin when that wears off," Rani said.

"Thanks, Rani, for cheering me up," Clyde said with a groan.

"I'll help you with it. I'll make sure it's not too bad. Just relax," Rani said in a soft voice as she wrapped her arms around him.

"It's about time. I thought they'd never get together," Amy whispered to Sarah Jane.

"They're still not together yet. They're still too stubborn to admit that they're a couple," Sarah Jane whispered back.

"They'll get around to it. Some people are just slower about committing than others, that's all. They're not anywhere near as bad as the Doctor was though. It took him over a hundred years to admit that he loved Rose if I remember correctly," Amy whispered back as she tried not to laugh.

"That sounds like him," Sarah Jane said as she tried not to laugh as well.

"Does this mean that I can go home now, Mum?" Henry asked Rani.

"I'm not sure. What do you think, Sarah Jane?" Rani asked.

Everyone looked at her in shock as she didn't even seem to be fazed by the fact that Henry had just called her Mum. Sarah Jane decided not to mention it for now as she said, "I think it should be safe as long as we watch out for ourselves like Kali warned. Besides, I'm sure Henry's dying to see his girlfriend, Abby."

"She's not my girlfriend," Henry protested.

"Yeah, sure!" Clyde said as he winced from his head hurting just because he talked.

"That serves you right. Maybe that'll teach you to keep your mouth shut," Rani teased him as she gave him another quick peck on the lips.

Rani then turned to Amy and said, "Thank you for helping me, Amy. I really appreciate it. I guarantee you that I'll never do something like that again. I learned my lesson. I just wanted to help Lady Jane. I felt so bad for her."

"I know but you have to think sometimes before you do something, Rani. You really need to stop acting like a teenager. Next time, I might not be able to bail you out," Amy warned.

"I guarantee that I'll think twice before I do anything even remotely like that. I think it's the fact that I was a teenager until just recently. I'm still a little influenced by that kind of mindset, Amy. I'm sorry!" Rani said as she looked down to the floor.

"It's okay. I'm used to having people around that I have to bail out of trouble. You do remember whose mother I am, don't you?" Amy asked with a grin.

"You're a good friend, Cliodna. You always were. Thank you!" Rani said as she hugged her in gratitude.

"I want to thank you too. I'm so glad that Rani's going to be alright. I feel so bad about what I've done to her," Lady Jane said as she finally spoke up.

"You don't need to feel bad about anything. You didn't do anything wrong," Amy said.

"That's right. I was the one who messed up not you. It's all fine now anyway. Now I'm in even worse danger from an entirely different source, and it's got absolutely nothing to do with you," Rani said with a grin.

"So you see? Rani's just a trouble magnet. If it wasn't you, it'd always be something. The girl just can't help it," Selene said with a chuckle.

"That is so true," Amy said.

"Thanks a lot. You make it sound like I get into trouble on purpose or something," Rani said with a grin.

"What am I going to do now?" Lady Jane asked.

"Anything you want to. You're finally free to determine your own destiny," Rani said.

Lady Jane thought for a moment and then she said, "I think I'd like to stay with you a while until I find out what that is. Is that alright?"

"I'd love to have you. You'll be like the sister I never had in either of my lives," Rani said enthusiastically.

"Trust me. It's not all it's cracked up to be," Selene joked.

"Hey!" Amy protested with a smile.

"I would like that, Rani. I think that we'll get along very well. At least, I hope so anyway. I'll try not to be too much trouble," Lady Jane promised.

"I'm sure it's not you that I'm going to have to worry about," Rani said as she looked at Henry who had a fake innocent look on his face as if he was already up to something.

"Should I tell my parents about being a Time Lord?" Rani suddenly asked.

"That's up to you. I would though if it were me. You could also tell them the truth about all of us too if you want," Sarah Jane said.

"You should do it. They'll eventually find out anyway. Both of my parents found out about Sarah Jane despite my best efforts at trying to keep it a secret. It's better if they don't find out about it when they're in the middle of deadly danger. I learned that from personal experience," Maria said.

"Thanks. I guess I'll have to do it now that I have both a new son and a new friend/sister in my life. That's just too many secrets to keep," Rani said.

"Rani, when did you decide to make Henry your son?" Sarah Jane finally asked as her curiosity finally won out.

"When I was finally freed of Kali. That made me want to make all kinds of changes to my life," Rani said.

"Isn't it cool?" Henry asked.

Yes, it certainly is, Henry. It certainly is," Sarah Jane said.

Clyde meanwhile had a terrified look on his face. He wasn't just getting Rani if he continued in a relationship with her. He was also getting Bane Boy and a former bloody Queen of England. It was bad enough thinking about Haresh before. This just made things a little worse. He would have to think about this. Was she worth it?

He thought about it for a few minutes, and then he initiated a kiss with Rani for the first time. He both surprised and delighted her by doing so.

She was worth it.

**Next: Rani tells her parents the whole truth about her and Sarah Jane even as she introduces them to Henry and Lady Jane. Haresh may just surprise her with an admission of his own.**


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

Rani materialized her TARDIS right outside of her parents' house, and then stood there in terror for a while. She really wasn't sure about this. She knew that it had to be done, but that didn't mean that she was looking forward to it.

"Aren't you going to introduce us, Mum? You're not ashamed of me, are you?" Henry asked.

"No, no! It's got nothing to do with you at all, Henry. It's just kind of nerve wracking to suddenly drop all of my secrets on my parents at once like this especially with my Mum. I'm not sure how she's going to react. Maybe I'll just come back later," Rani said as she started to get back inside the TARDIS.

"Rani, go in there right now!" Lady Jane commanded.

Rani was surprised by this as she had never acted so forceful towards her before. Lady Jane smiled at her as she said, "I was the Queen, you know, even if it was for only nine days. Just because I'm unsure of my place here doesn't mean that I'm going to let you make a mistake. You said that we could be like sisters so here's where I start acting like one and look out for you. Do it, Rani. You'll feel better once it's over."

Rani smiled at her as she said, "Thanks."

"What else are sisters for?" Lady Jane said.

Rani then turned back toward the house with a look on her face that Lady Jane recognized. It was the same way that she had felt right before she was about to be executed. She hoped that it wouldn't be quite a bad as that though.

Rani knocked on the door, and her mother Gita answered right away. Gita's face was filled with a huge smile as she hugged Rani tightly. She hadn't seen Rani in a while, and she was so happy that she had decided to drop by. The look on Rani's face told her that she was troubled though.

'What is it, sweetheart? You know you can tell me anything," Gita said.

"Is Dad here too?" Rani asked as she avoided the question for the moment.

"He's around here somewhere. I'll get him. Is everything okay?" Gita asked.

"I have a big announcement to make. I've been keeping something from you, and it's time that I told you about it," Rani said.

"About Sarah Jane and how you help her keep the world safe from aliens you mean? I already know about that, Rani," Haresh said as he came out of a back room.

"You do?" Rani asked in shock.

She looked at her mother to see if she knew as well and saw to her complete astonishment that she did. Gita's face had no surprise whatsoever on it.

"How did you know?" Rani asked.

"We've both suspected for some time now. We're much smarter than we look, Rani. I knew for sure after that whole incident with Henry and Mrs. Wormwood. It's okay, Rani. You're a grown woman, and you can do what you want to with your life. At least I know that you're doing something good with it," Haresh said.

"I'm not so fond of it, Rani, but I trust Sarah Jane so I'm sure it'll be alright," Gita said a little nervously.

"Sarah Jane protects the world from aliens that are out to destroy it or conquer it. She's been doing that ever since she first met an alien herself. The Doctor was an alien. She met him years ago, and they became good friends. They helped save the world and the universe together several times, and then she went on protecting the Earth by herself once he left her. Not all aliens are bad though. Remember that, Mum and Dad! A lot of aliens are good. They never harm anyone," Rani said.

Rani took a deep breath. It was going good so far, but that was the least of her secrets. Now she had to unload the big one on them and hope that it didn't blow up in her face.

"That's not the only reason that I came here, Mum and Dad. I . . . ," Rani started to cry as she became worried about their reaction.

"It's alright. Whatever it is, it'll be alright," Gita said as she put her arms around her to comfort her.

"Just tell us, Rani. Spit it out," Haresh said in a soothing voice.

Rani steeled herself for what was to come as she looked back toward the doorway to see Lady Jane smiling encouragingly at her. She had to do this.

"I'm not who you think I am. I'm not really your daughter," Rani said.

"How did you know that? Did you tell her that?" Gita asked Haresh in a panic.

"I never said a thing," Haresh promised.

"You know that I'm not yours?" Rani asked.

"Of course we did. It would be hard not to notice when you were just dumped on our doorstep like you were with that watch in your tiny little hand. I never wanted to tell you though. I never wanted you to feel like I didn't want you or like you weren't mine. You are mine, Rani. You always will be. Don't worry about that, sweetheart!" Gita said.

"I wasn't just abandoned, Mum. I was left there by my time machine, the TARDIS. I'm not human, Mum. I'm an alien. Specifically, I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. It's a long story, but someone took over my mind and used a machine called a Chameleon Arch on me to turn me into a human in order to hide herself from the rest of our people who thought she was dead. Of course she thought that she had destroyed my mind at the time and was in complete control of my body. It turned out that I wasn't quite gone, and the machine used my mind instead of hers to create Rani from," Rani said.

Both of her parents looked at her like she was mad and said nothing.

"Rani, what's happened to you? One of those aliens messed with your mind, didn't they? I knew this would happen! You've had your brains scrambled by some alien machine!" Gita cried out in alarm.

"Mum, I'm an alien. My real name's Annika. I just found out about it recently. I still love both of you though. That hasn't changed at all. As far as I'm concerned, you're still my parents," Rani said.

Both of them looked at her with blank expressions on their faces as they wondered if it could possibly be true. Was their daughter really an alien?

Rani knew that they were having a hard time believing her so she decided to give them some visual evidence. She used a small portion of her regenerative energy to make both of her hands glow with golden energy for a brief moment. Her eyes glowed with energy as well.

"It's true," Gita said in a weak voice.

"I still love both of you. I really hope that you still love me too," Rani said in a scared voice.

Gita looked in Rani's eyes and could still see her daughter there and so could Haresh. Both of them moved to hug her at once as the family had a group hug. Rani began to cry with joy. They accepted her!

"So you're okay with it?" Rani asked.

"Yes, of course we are," Haresh said.

"We're all for aliens in our house. Well, I'm all for one of them anyway," Gita said as she kissed Rani's forehead.

"I still have a few more things to tell you about," Rani said.

"Well, they can't be as bad as the whole 'I'm an alien' thing. You can't top that," Gita said with a laugh.

"I've adopted a son, and I have a new friend who's living with me now. She's actually Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days Queen. I rescued her from being executed with my time machine," Rani said.

"You've just got it all going on lately, don't you? I've never heard of so many changes before coming in such a short time," Gita said in shock.

"You have a time machine?" Haresh asked in disbelief.

"Of course she does. It's kind of implied in the Time Lord name, dear," Gita said.

Rani was surprised at how fast her mother was getting used to this and how well she was keeping up with it all. She was proud of her.

Rani looked toward the door and invited Lady Jane and Henry inside. They both hesitantly walked inside. Now it was their turn to be afraid! Rani thought to herself with a grin.

Gita looked at Lady Jane in shock as she realized who she was. She started to curtsey to her, but Lady Jane stopped her and smiled at her.

"I'm not the Queen. I haven't been in quite some time. Your daughter saved my life, and now she's going to give me a chance to live my life the way that I want to. A life where I can do what I want instead of what my parents wanted me to do. I never wanted to be Queen after all. That was all their idea. I just don't have any idea what exactly that I want to do with it yet so I'm staying with her in her TARDIS for a while. Is that alright?" Lady Jane asked.

"Of course, it's alright. My daughter is friends with a Queen! You can't ask for more than that," Gita said happily.

Henry looked at Rani's parents hesitantly as he said, "Hello, I'm Henry. Rani said that she'd be my Mum."

Gita looked at him for a moment, and then developed a huge smile as she hugged him while she said, "He's adorable! Is he an alien too?"

"I was made by the Bane to take over the world. I ran away though, and then Rani took me in. She's been taking care of me ever since," Henry said.

"So that's where you went to. I've been wondering about you for a while now. You disappeared right after the whole Mrs. Wormwood incident. So you're living with Rani too?" Haresh asked.

"Yes, Sir. It's been me and Mum. Well, I guess Lady Jane is going to be with us now too. I guess she can be my Aunt Jane," Henry said.

"I don't see why not," Lady Jane said.

"You've already given me a grandchild, Rani. Now all you have to do is get married, and I can die content," Gita said happily.

"She's working on that," Henry said with an evil grin.

"Shut up, Henry!" Rani hissed.

"Sorry, Mum!" Henry said even though he didn't look very sorry.

"What is he talking about, Rani?" Haresh asked with sudden interest. He had a bad feeling about this.

"I, uh, I'm going out with Clyde," Rani said.

"What?!" Haresh said as he became enraged.

"Clyde's a nice boy, Haresh. She could have done much worse," Gita said as she tried to calm him down.

"I don't see how," Haresh said.

"I find it amazing that I tell you that I'm a Time Lord, and you don't even blink. However, when I tell you that I'm going out with Clyde then you freak out!" Rani said with a grin.

"Of course, I'm freaking out as you put it. You could do so much better, Rani. He's a nice boy, but he's not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, is he?" Haresh said.

"I can't help who I love, Dad. I've had feelings for him for a long time now, and I've finally gotten him to admit that he feels the same way about me. I have to see where life takes us. I want to see where we go from here," Rani said passionately.

"I just think that you're making a mistake, Rani. I guess I'll just have to let you make it. It's your life and your choice. I don't think that Clyde would ever break your heart so it's not that. It's just that I think that you might find that you want something more out of life, and you might wind up breaking his. Do you want to risk that?" Haresh asked.

"I don't really believe that I'll ever change in the way that I feel about him. I haven't so far, and it's been years since I first started to fall for him. I think it's the real deal, Dad," Rani said.

"Alright, Rani. I guess I'll just have to trust in your judgment. You've done pretty well so far in your decisions," Haresh said.

"Well, I did almost get into trouble by saving Lady Jane, but a friend of mine bailed me out of it. I learned my lesson about that. No more interfering in history ever again," Rani admitted.

"That took a lot of courage to admit that when you had just won the argument, Rani. It doesn't make me right or you wrong though. Everyone makes mistakes. Even people with usually good judgment like me and you. I still trust your ability to do what's best for yourself and Clyde though. The mistake that you made with changing history came from the heart so I can't really say that it was misguided. I've often thought to myself what if I could change the past too. I'm sure that I would do a lot worse with a time machine if I were in your position," Haresh admitted.

"Maybe but I doubt it. Would you like to have a chance to ride in a time machine?" Rani asked with a huge smile.

"Really?" Haresh asked.

"Yep. It's right outside," Rani said proudly.

She led her parents outside, and they looked around for the TARDIS in confusion.

"Where is it?" Haresh asked.

"It's right in front of you. It's in disguise," Rani said with a giggle.

"Disguised as what, thin air?" Haresh asked.

"No, it's that old tree right in front of you," Rani said.

"That's your time machine?" Haresh asked.

"It can disguise itself to look like its surroundings so that no one can find it," Rani explained.

"I would certainly never find it," Haresh admitted.

"I think it's very clever, Rani. Who would think of a tree as being a time machine? It makes me wonder if there might be other time machines around in disguise. They could be anywhere. I wonder if any of the other trees might be one," Gita said as she looked around her suspiciously.

"I don't think so, Mum. I think it's just this one," Rani said in amusement.

"Rani, after all of the surprises that you've given me today I wouldn't be surprised if all of the trees in our yard turned out to be aliens instead," Gita said.

"Trees aren't aliens, Mum. Well, not all of them anyway," Rani said with a chuckle.

"Was that a joke?" Gita asked Lady Jane.

"Sometimes I'm not sure," Lady Jane responded with a shrug of her shoulders.

Rani led them all inside of her TARDIS, and her parents looked around the Console Room in amazement. She smiled at their excitement, and the way that they looked at the TARDIS like a kid in a candy shop. She was hoping that they would respond like this.

"So, where would you like to go? You've both got anywhere in time and space at your fingertips," Rani said as she made a sweeping motion with her arm.

"I've always wanted to meet Leonardo da Vinci and see him painting the Mona Lisa," Haresh said.

"Done," Rani said even as she remembered how the Mona Lisa was actually alive. She hoped that wouldn't matter though. She had never heard of her coming to life as Leonardo was painting her after all.

Rani's TARDIS appeared inside of Leonardo's Workshop, and the whole group of them left the TARDIS as they looked at the half finished Mona Lisa in awe. Luckily, Leonardo wasn't around, and they could look at all of his paintings that were left lying around as much as they wanted. This really was looking at history as it occurred.

They suddenly heard someone approaching the workshop, and Rani started to feel a familiar presence nearby. She started to panic as she realized who was just outside the workshop and about to enter it at any moment. She panicked even more as she realized just who could, and probably would with her luck, be with them.

"We've got to go! Now!" Rani shouted.

"What is it, Rani?" Gita asked.

"We've got to get back in the TARDIS. Hurry, hurry!" Rani shouted as she tried to get them to move quickly.

It was already too late though. They had already seen them.

"Doctor, who are they? They certainly don't look like they belong in this time," a young woman who Rani recognized all too well said.

"That's because they don't, Sarah Jane. Who are you? Did the Time Lords send you to check up on me? Are you here to send me on yet another mission for them? I won't do it! I just won't!" the Fourth Doctor said as he pouted like a baby.

This was the Doctor with the curly hair, the floppy hat, and the long multi-colored scarf. So far he didn't recognize her. She had to get out of here now before he did, and also before the young Sarah Jane could get a good look at her and her parents. Maybe if they left in a hurry, they could avoid creating any problems.

That unfortunately was not to be.

"Hello, Doctor! I knew that if I came here to Leonardo's Workshop and stayed long enough that you would eventually be here. You certainly brag enough about knowing him," a woman's voice said behind all of them.

"Oh, no!" Rani said under her breath as she recognized that voice.

"Doctor, who is that?" Sarah Jane asked.

"That's an old enemy of mine although she used to be a good friend once too, Sarah Jane. I wish that she could be again someday. That's the Rani," the Doctor said sadly.

"Don't act so sad, Doctor. We're about to become very close again, you and I. I need you to help me with a plan to save my sister. I'm going to bring Kali back from the dead!" the Rani said.

**Next: It's Rani vs. the Rani! What is the Rani's plan to save Kali, and how will it affect Rani's future?**


	12. Two Ranis Are Not Better Than One

CHAPTER 12

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

TWO RANIS ARE DEFINITELY NOT BETTER THAN ONE!

The Rani noticed Rani and the others in the room with her at last as she said, "Just who are you supposed to be?"

"You don't recognize me?" Rani asked surprised.

"No, should I? Are you yet another renegade Time Lord come to plague my existence like the Doctor and the Master?" the Rani asked.

Rani couldn't speak for a minute as she tried to process what was going on. Neither the Doctor nor the Rani recognized her, but they both should. She knew them both when she was younger after all. What was going on here? Was this a result of the new powers that she was suddenly developing ever since Kali had left her mind?

"I'm not a renegade at all. My name's . . . ," Rani said as she thought fast to come up with any name but her own in order to keep from damaging the timestream anymore than she already was.

"The girl doesn't even know her own name. I grow tired of you already, whoever you are. Get out of my way, or I'll cut you down where you stand," the Rani threatened.

"Don't you speak to my daughter that way, you harpy!" Gita shouted.

"Mum, this isn't the time!" Rani said in a low voice.

"No, let her speak. I'd like to know why a human is calling you her daughter. Are you one of those human lovers like the Doctor? That's rich! I don't really care one way or the other though. All that matters to me is bringing my sister back. Take your human friends and go now before I change my mind," the Rani said.

Rani tried not to smile. That was that the part of her that was still Ushas speaking. She was offering them mercy. Rani decided that it would be best if she took her up on it.

"Let's go," Rani said.

"What about them?" Haresh asked.

"I'm sure it'll be okay. We're not supposed to be here anyway," Rani said.

"What if we are supposed to be here though to save them?" Henry asked.

"Let's just go," Rani said as she continued to direct them all back toward the TARDIS.

"She's trying to save us," Lady Jane whispered.

Rani silently nodded at her to show that this was true, and the others followed her into the TARDIS after they realized that she wasn't leaving yet. Once inside though, they all started to talk at once even as Rani watched what was going on outside on her TARDIS' monitor. So far the Doctor and Sarah Jane were still standing there talking to the Rani and hadn't left yet. She couldn't let them out of her sight.

"I think that we need to help them before it's too late, Mum," Henry said.

"Aren't you interfering in the past just by being here? Then again, he could be right. You're the expert on this, Rani," Haresh said.

"I think that you should go out there and help them now that we're all safe," Lady Jane suggested.

"We need to just leave before someone gets hurt. I'm sure that we're not supposed to even be here. Once we leave, things will play out like they should I'm sure," Gita said.

Rani was silent this entire time as she kept debating what she should do. Her every instinct told her to go back outside and help her two friends.

Rani raced to the console and began to put in coordinates at a mad pace. She had to calculate this just right.

As Rani's TARDIS started to dematerialize, the Rani said, "Good. I thought she'd never leave. She was certainly a timid little thing, wasn't she? She didn't even try to fight."

"Let's go, Doctor. You can leave the girl here. I have no use for her," the Rani said.

"What am I supposed to do to get home? I can't be trapped in the Renaissance forever," Sarah Jane said in an annoyed voice.

"I'm sure I don't care, dear. If you're very lucky though, I may be so happy to see my sister again that I'll set the Doctor free and send him back to you. I wouldn't count on it though," the Rani said with an evil laugh.

"Go back to the TARDIS, Sarah Jane. She'll take you home," the Doctor said as he began to follow the Rani out of Leonardo's Workshop.

"I'm not leaving here without you, Doctor," Sarah Jane said defiantly as she stood her ground.

"Then I'm afraid that I don't have any other choice. I won't let anything stop me now that I'm so close to bringing her back," the Rani said.

"No, leave her alone! Let's just go, Ushas," the Doctor said.

"I cannot allow her to interfere," the Rani said.

She started to take a small capsule out of one of the bracelets on her wrists and threw it toward Sarah Jane. Just before it would have reached her though, Rani's TARDIS materialized around her.

The capsule burst open, and a thin mist came out that quickly dissipated. The Doctor growled at the Rani as he said, "What was in that capsule, Rani? What were you going to do to her?"

"It was only a sleeping gas. I only acted like I was going to kill her in order to get her to leave. I'm not the Master, Doctor. She's safe now. Let the timid girl have her. Let's go," the Rani said.

The Doctor hesitated as he wasn't sure of just who this other Time Lady was. Was Sarah Jane safe with her or not?

"You and your precious humans! Let's go, Doctor! Now!" the Rani said as she suddenly blew a handful of dust in his face.

The Doctor's eyes went blank, and he began to mindlessly follow her back to her TARDIS. After Sarah Jane watched him go on the monitor in Rani's TARDIS, she spun around to stare at Rani in anger.

"Why couldn't you have come just a little sooner? Now she's got the Doctor! We have to get him back!" Sarah Jane shouted at her with worry.

"We will. Don't worry," Rani said in a soothing voice.

She quickly located the Rani's TARDIS using the instruments on her console and quickly dematerialized her own TARDIS. She was going to try an old trick that she hadn't performed since the Academy.

"Where are we going? She's leaving with the Doctor any minute now," Sarah Jane said.

"Have a little faith in me, Sarah Jane. Just watch," Rani said with a wicked smile.

Sarah Jane looked at her with suspicion as she wondered how she knew her name. Then she remembered that the Doctor had mentioned it earlier. Somehow she didn't think that was how she had learned it though. This strange young woman seemed to already know her somehow. She was beginning to wonder if she might be from her own future. Stranger things had happened to her since she had started traveling with the Doctor after all.

Rani landed her TARDIS directly inside the Rani's TARDIS, and the two TARDISes soon dematerialized together as the Rani took off. The Rani materialized on the planet that she ruled called Miasimia Goria, and she ordered the Doctor to follow her into her laboratory.

Rani, Sarah Jane, and the others watched on the monitor as the Rani hooked the Doctor up to some kind of machine. In the center of the machine, they could see a huge brain.

"I can't believe it! She's using the old Time Manipulator plan. She finally found a way to get it to work. She used to talk about that all of the time back at the Academy. She drove us all nuts speculating about what she could do to the history of the universe if she could build one. It seemed to fascinate her," Rani said.

"Now I know you know the Doctor. You're rambling on just like he always does," Sarah Jane said with a smile.

"I am, aren't I? I think I was around him too much growing up. He must have corrupted my fragile young mind," Rani said with a chuckle.

Rani looked at the upset look on her mother's face and realized that it must be hitting home to her at last that Rani really was an alien who had another life before she adopted her. She quickly walked over to Gita and hugged her as she said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, Mum."

Gita smiled back at her as she said, "It's okay. I just never quite believed it until I started hearing you talk about knowing that other Rani just now. There's this whole other side of you that I know nothing about, and it really upsets me. I know it's not your fault though. I'm not blaming you, sweetheart."

"I can tell you all about it sometime if that will help," Rani said.

"Yeah, I'd like that," Gita said.

"Rani, something's happening. Hurry!" Sarah Jane said as she continued to watch the monitor.

"She knows my name now. This is just going great," Rani said in a low voice.

"Did you ever consider that maybe she was supposed to meet you, Rani? She took to you very quickly when you first met her almost as if she already knew you. I always wondered about that. Why did she take you under her wing so soon after you arrived in her neighborhood?" Haresh said.

Rani looked at her father in surprise. She had never even considered that. Could it be true? Could Sarah Jane have known for most of her life that someday she would meet her?

"Rani, do something. I think she might be killing the Doctor!" Sarah Jane said.

Rani raced to the monitor to see the headset on the Doctor's head shaking and she said, "No, she's not killing him. She's trying to add his knowledge to her Time Brain. That's what the giant brain is. She probably has some other geniuses hooked up to it too somewhere. She's going to use it to control her Time Manipulator once she gets it finished."

"What will this Time Manipulator do?" Sarah Jane asked.

"She could use it to alter any event in the history of the universe and remake it to her design," Rani said.

"What is it that she wants to alter?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Her sister Kali's death. She must be going to try to rescue her from the dispersal chamber right before she was executed. It's a fixed point in time so she can only do that by creating a Time Manipulator to change history with. Only she doesn't realize something. Kali's mind survived her death because she jumped into someone else's body. Even if she brought Kali's body back from that point in time, she would only get an empty shell," Rani explained.

"Why don't you tell her that?" Sarah Jane asked.

"She isn't supposed to know that yet. She doesn't find out until far in the future," Rani explained.

"Just like I'm not supposed to know who you are," Sarah Jane guessed.

"Yes. You aren't supposed to meet me until far into your own future. At least that's what I always thought until now anyway. I guess I was wrong," Rani said.

"Don't worry. I won't say anything about it when I do meet you until I'm sure that you already know about it," Sarah Jane promised.

"Thank you. You have no idea how even something as minor as the two of us meeting out of order could create havoc across the timestream if we don't handle it very carefully. When you meet me, Sarah Jane, you have to promise never to tell me anything about this day. I won't understand you even if you do. I'm just going to be an ordinary human girl with no knowledge of Time Lords or time travel at all," Rani said.

"I don't understand, but I'll do as you say. Shouldn't we do something to stop that woman though before she starts up this Time Manipulator of hers?" Sarah Jane said.

"That won't happen for a while yet. She still needs to use the knowledge of the completed Time Brain to come up with a substitute for strange matter. You see she has to create a strange matter explosion over this planet in order to create helium 2 which will then fuse with the atmosphere of the planet and create a shell of chronons or time particles around it. Then the Time Brain will grow and fill up the gap between the planet and the chronons. This entire planet will then become her Time Manipulator with the Time Brain controlling it. She needs to find a ready supply of strange matter floating somewhere in space first though, and then somehow cause it to collide with her strange matter substitute whatever it is first. Until she does that, the Time Manipulator is useless," Rani said confidently.

"Yes, just like the Doctor. I didn't understand most of what you said. What I did understand is that she has to create some kind of explosion over this planet in order to cause the planet itself to become her means of controlling time. Am I right?" Sarah Jane asked.

"That's it in a nutshell. She'll have to be off of the planet before this happens though or she'll be killed. She'll have to make a fast getaway in her TARDIS first. Like I said though, I'm sure she isn't anywhere close to finishing things yet. What we need to do is sneak out there and rescue the Doctor from her before she finds out that we're here. Then we can destroy the Time Brain before she ever gets a chance to use it," Rani said.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go," Sarah Jane said.

"Let me take us out of here first though," Rani said.

Rani dematerialized her TARDIS from inside the Rani's TARDIS, and then quickly materialized it once again outside on stealth mode so that it made no noise and was invisible. Rani and Sarah Jane then silently left it and slowly made their way behind the Rani.

She appeared to be completely oblivious to their presence as she worked at the controls of the machine that she was using to create her Time Brain. Rani quickly came up with a plan that she hoped would work.

_Sarah Jane, create a distraction so that I can hit her from behind._ Rani said in Sarah Jane's mind surprising her.

_So you're telepathic too like the Doctor. I imagine all of his people must be though. Alright. If you want a distraction, I'll give it to you._ Sarah Jane said with a wink.

Sarah Jane quickly ran into the Rani's line of sight and stuck her tongue out at her as she said, "It looks like I made it here after all. Nyah! Nyah!"

"What? This time I will kill you, girl!" the Rani said.

Sarah Jane started to run from her, and the Rani was so intent on capturing her that she never noticed Rani coming up behind her. Rani punched her in the back of the head stunning her, and then she sent her crashing to the ground by flipping her over her head with a Venusian Aikido move that she had once learned from her friend Selene. The Rani was knocked out cold in a matter of seconds.

"Nyah! Nyah!?" Rani asked Sarah Jane.

"There's no point to being grown-up if you can't be a little childish sometimes," Sarah Jane quoted.

"I wonder who you got that from," Rani said with a sigh.

"A good friend who I hope is going to be okay," Sarah Jane said.

"Watch her while I disconnect him," Rani said before she quickly unhooked the Doctor from the machine.

After the Doctor came back to his senses, he looked at the large brain in front of him for a minute before he said, "Oh, it's the Time Manipulator plot again, is it? Well, I can't give her much credit for imagination. I wonder how many times she's going to try carrying out this plan before she realizes that it doesn't work."

"A lot I assume," Rani said.

"Excuse me, but you seem so familiar to me. I'm getting on in years you know so maybe I've simply forgotten you. I am 750 after all so I'm probably way past due a little memory loss. Do we know each other?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, we do, and you shouldn't have forgotten me unless you've had major memory loss which I doubt. Something strange is going on here. Something I don't quite understand yet. I hope that someday I will though," Rani said.

"Wait a minute. Annika?" the Doctor asked as he studied her for a few minutes.

"You remember?" Rani asked.

"Yes, of course I do. I just didn't recognize you. It's as if you're somehow hiding your identity from me. I couldn't see you for who you really are until I really concentrated on it. It's just like a perception filter. You're just like a walking, talking perception filter!" the Doctor said happily.

"How could that happen? I've started developing these new powers lately, but I've never heard of any Time Lord with a power like that before," Rani said in a disturbed voice.

"I'm glad that you've finally come out of hiding wherever you went to all of those centuries ago, Annika. I suppose though from the way that you're acting that you're from my own future, and I'm not supposed to know about you yet. I hate having to suppress my memories. I have a feeling I've done a lot of it in my life because I simply get the most horrendous headaches from time to time," the Doctor said.

"Don't suppress them just yet. We still have to rescue any other people that the Rani captured like she did you and then destroy this oversized brain of hers," Rani said.

Once Rani and the Doctor found and disconnected all of the kidnapped geniuses from the Rani's machine, they destroyed the Time Brain and blew up the equipment that she used to make it. It seemed like everything was over with at last, but they were wrong.

"Doctor, Rani, she's gone!" Sarah Jane cried out just as they were finishing up their destruction of her equipment.

The two Time Lords raced back to where they had left the Rani to find that she had somehow escaped from the ropes that they had bound her in. Rani wasn't too surprised though. She didn't remember Marissa ever telling her that she had been caught at this point in her life. It was just time proceeding as it should apparently.

Rani took the Doctor and Sarah Jane back to where they came from in Leonardo's Workshop and then said her good byes. Even as the Doctor went into the TARDIS and blocked his memories of this day, Sarah Jane promised to tell no one about it as she waited to join him inside of it.

"I look forward to meeting you again, Rani. I bet we're going to have a lot of great fun together in the future. Good bye," Sarah Jane said as the two woman embraced.

"We will have fun. We're still having fun together. I . . . I love you, Sarah Jane. You're one of my best friends. Maybe I shouldn't have said that," Rani said.

Sarah Jane looked at her in shock for a moment and then she said with a warm smile, "No, you definitely should have said it. I'm glad that I make such an impact on you in the future. It's something to look forward to in my old age. Good bye, Rani."

"Good bye, Sarah Jane," Rani said as Sarah Jane got into the Doctor's TARDIS and shut the door behind her.

The Doctor's TARDIS dematerialized, and Rani returned to her TARDIS. She still didn't feel a sense of closure though. Something still felt wrong because the Rani had gotten away.

"Are we going back to get the others now?" Lady Jane asked.

"No, not yet. There's something that I have to check on first," Rani said as she went to the console.

"What's left to check on? You defeated the bad guy, and they're gone now. I'd say that's a job well done. I have such a cool mum!" Henry said proudly.

"Thanks! I just have a bad feeling though. I don't think she's done yet," Rani said.

"You think that she'll try something else?" Lady Jane asked.

"No, I think she'll try the exact same thing over and over again until she finally gets it right. That's the problem," Rani answered.

All of this should have been over with, but she could feel that it wasn't. She knew Ushas too well. She knew that she would just keep trying to carry out this plan of hers until she succeeded. She had to find out when that would be and be there when and if she rescued Kali's body.

She checked her TARDIS' memory banks and discovered that the Rani had actually gotten the Time Manipulator to almost work on the planet Lakertya only to be stopped by the Seventh Doctor. She continued to check the memory until she found out that the Rani had finally gotten her plan to work after all, but she finally gave up on it for some unknown reason. The computer didn't say why. It was on Miasimia Goria again right before the Time War.

"Before I take everyone back home, I just have to make one last quick trip," Rani told the others before heading forward in time to the date recorded in the Matrix and put into her TARDIS' memory.

As soon as Rani arrived, she exited her TARDIS to find the Rani crying over the unmoving body of her sister. She slowly walked up to her, and the Rani turned toward her with a devastated look on her face.

"Did you already know that this would happen back when I tried this the first time?" the Rani asked her.

"Yes, I couldn't tell you though. The Laws of Time and all of that," Rani said.

"Can you tell me now? Where is her mind? Why doesn't she have her mind?" the Rani asked in tears.

"I can't tell you, no. All I can say is that not everything was as it appeared to be on the day that she died," Rani said.

"She escaped! She put her mind inside of someone else's, didn't she? She's still alive!" the Rani cried out in joy.

"Yes. I'm afraid that I can't tell you any more than that though. I'll take her body with me now," Rani said in a soft voice.

"Will you make sure that she gets it? Please don't let everything that I did be for nothing. Promise me that you'll take it to her," the Rani said.

"I'll try," Rani said.

"Thank you. I don't know who you are but thank you!" the Rani said.

"I'm a friend or at least I will be," Rani said.

"Now that sounds a little hard to believe. Then again I suppose anything is possible," the Rani said as she gave her a small smile.

"You have no idea," Rani said as she dragged Kali's body into her own TARDIS and quickly dematerialized before the Rani changed her mind about letting her go.

"Is she dead?" Gita asked as Rani placed Kali's body in the corner of the Console Room.

"No. Physically she's perfectly fine. Her problem is that she's mindless. At least for now. I'm about to change that I hope," Rani said.

"Is that Kali's body?" Henry asked.

"Yes, it is. Now I just have to find Kali somehow and tell her about it. I'm not even sure that she'll want it back now that she has another body, but I'll have to try. She did say that she didn't want to work for the Black Guardian after all, and she won't have to if she no longer owes her anything. Besides, I made a promise," Rani said.

Rani materialized her TARDIS back on Iceworld to pick up the older Sarah Jane and the others that she had left there. As Sarah Jane looked at the body lying on the floor and saw Rani's parents in the TARDIS with her, she said, "Tell me, have you been to Leonardo's Workshop yet?"

"Yes, I have. You knew who I was all along, didn't you? From the first day you met me," Rani asked.

"Yes, I did. You don't know how many times I've wanted to tell you the whole story but I couldn't. I recognized you and your parents right away. I could never understand why you were human though until recently. It's so good to be able to talk to you about everything at last," Sarah Jane said as she embraced Rani.

Then the two of them turned as they heard a loud clearing of the throat behind them. Gita was giving Sarah Jane the evil eye, and Rani knew there was going to be trouble.

"Sarah Jane, we have to talk," Gita said.

**Next: Sarah Jane and Rani's parents have a little 'discussion' about what she and Rani have been up to together all of these years. Also what is the deal with Rani's new powers? Meanwhile Luke and Maria start to reestablish their friendship even as the others start wondering if maybe that friendship has become something more. Plus Rani tries to contact Kali about taking her original body back. What will her response be? **


	13. An Ancient Evil Reawakens

CHAPTER 13

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

AN ANCIENT EVIL REAWAKENS

"Since when did you start calling me Sarah Jane? You never call me that," Sarah Jane said in surprise.

"Maybe it's about time that I started. Rani's told me how you don't exactly like that. She's told me everything now as a matter of fact. I know where she really came from, and I know about you. More importantly, I know about what she was doing with you, Luke, and Clyde all of those years. You should have told me, Sarah Jane. I deserved to know," Gita said.

"Mum, I went with her of my own free will. Don't start a fuss," Rani said.

"I'm not. I trust Sarah, I mean Sarah Jane, enough to know that she wouldn't let anything happen to you. I'm not angry about that. I'm angry because I was kept in the dark about it. No more secrets. I want to know everything from now on," Gita said firmly.

"Agreed. You actually did find out once before, but you started going on about telling the whole world about aliens. One of the Men in Black erased your memory because of that. They don't exactly like the idea of humanity knowing about aliens," Sarah Jane said.

Rani smiled as she noticed that Sarah Jane had conveniently left out the part about where she had told Mister Dread to do it.

"Well, I promise not to tell anyone about them now. I don't want to do anything to put Rani in danger after all. So we're agreed then. No more secrets. So what happens next? Are we going to a grand adventure on the moon?" Gita asked excited.

"I'd love that. Are we going, Mum?" Henry asked excited.

"Maybe eventually. There's nothing there though except a UNIT moonbase. It might get kind of boring there for you," Rani said.

"What about Mars then?" Henry asked.

Sarah Jane shivered as she remembered the Ice Warriors and Sutekh. She didn't plan on visiting there anytime soon. She told Rani that in no uncertain terms through the frown on her face at the very thought of it.

"Venus?" Henry asked.

"I'd rather not tangle with the Venusians again. The Doctor and I had a little bit of a falling out with them once, and I'm willing to bet that they probably haven't forgotten about it. Let's just say that I don't want to risk going back there because I'm sure with my luck that I'd bump into a certain person that I'd really rather not see again. He was all hands," Sarah Jane said with a smile.

Rani laughed at that comment. The Venusians had multiple arms. As she imagined a Venusian Captain Jack, she could easily see why Sarah Jane wouldn't want to go back there.

"Your life sounds so exciting. I'm going to really enjoy hearing you tell me all about it including more about the mysterious Doctor," Gita said.

"I can hardly wait," Sarah Jane said with a less than enthusiastic look on her face.

"I really need to contact Kali first before I do anything else. I can't just have her old body lying around all of the time," Rani said.

"Why do you want to go around her for? She's the one who stole your body, isn't she?" Gita asked in alarm.

"Yes but I promised her sister that I would let her have her old body back. You always told me to keep my promises, Mum," Rani said.

"Can't you just forget about this one just this once?" Gita asked.

"This Kali sounds too dangerous, Rani. Why don't you just give the body back to her sister and forget about going around her?" Haresh said.

"I've got to try. Besides I need to ask her about these new powers that I've started developing since she left my mind. I think that she might know more about them than she let on," Rani said.

"I remember that now. The Doctor and the Rani didn't recognize you even though they should have. I never have understood that," Sarah Jane said.

"Me either. The Doctor said that I was like a walking perception filter. I'd like to know how and why. Maybe Kali has the answers to that," Rani said.

"Been talking about me again when I'm not here? Didn't you ever tell her how rude that is, Gita?" Kali said as she suddenly appeared in the middle of the Console Room.

"You leave my daughter alone!" Gita challenged her.

"Mum!" Rani said in a warning tone.

"Oh, don't worry so much. I'm not going to kill her even though I easily could. I'm so happy to have a new body these days that I'm feeling almost giddy. Don't push it though, human," Kali said as she glared maliciously at Gita.

"Kali, I have your old body here. Your sister wanted you to have it back," Rani said as she pointed to the body lying in the far corner of the room.

Kali looked at her in surprise before walking over to get a closer look at her old body. Then she quietly stared at it for a moment with a look of indecision on her face.

"I do want it but if I were to take it back then the Black Guardian would know that I'm not really on her side. I need to find out what she's doing to help the Celestial Intervention Agency and put a stop to it from the inside. I can't do that if I suddenly change bodies. She has to think that I feel as if I owe her something for finding me a new body," Kali finally said.

"So you expect me to keep it for you?" Rani asked in an irritated voice.

"No, I'll take it with me when I go. I'm just not going to use it for now. So what do you really want, Annika? I know that it isn't just to give me back this body. I can tell by the look on your face that you're dying to ask me something," Kali said with a smug smile.

"What is happening to me? Ever since you left my body, I've been developing all of these new powers that I never had before. What do you know about them?" Rani asked.

"My presence in your mind seems to have activated the hidden potential of your own brain. I'm just amazing like that I suppose," Kali said with a malicious grin on her face.

"You did this to me!" Rani realized.

"Consider it a parting gift from me as I left your body. I unlocked your mind's full potential just before I left it. Even I don't know what powers you might get. Why they might even be dangerous. I know from personal experience that runaway mental powers can warp and distort your mind and make you into someone that you're not. That's what happened to me after all," Kali said as she continued to give Rani an evil smile.

Rani's blood froze as she realized that she might wind up as warped and twisted as Kali. She became furious and immediately punched Kali in the jaw as hard as she could.

Kali laughed as she held her jaw while saying, "I suppose I deserve that. Well, enjoy your new gifts, Annika. Hopefully you won't lose too much of your sanity."

Kali was still laughing out of control as she took her old body with her when she teleported away. Rani just stood there feeling stunned. She was suddenly terrified of what was to come.

"It'll be alright, Rani. I know it will. You'll never wind up like her," Gita said.

"Can't she go to someone for help? Surely someone could do something to fix her back," Haresh said to Sarah Jane in a worried voice.

"I'm sure that someone on Gallifrey can help. Rani has a lot of friends there. We could also let K'anpo take a look at her. He's here now on this ship. Why don't we go see him before we leave, Rani?" Sarah Jane said in a gentle voice as she saw the troubled look on Rani's face.

"Yeah, I'll go do that," Rani said in an extremely upset voice.

"You'd never become like her, Mum. I know you wouldn't," Henry said.

Rani smiled at him as she said, "Of course not. Don't worry about that for a minute. I'm fine. I'm just going to make sure that's all."

"We'll just go see this K'anpo person. I'll make him fix you if I have to," Gita said.

"Don't antagonize the man, Gita," Haresh said.

"I'll do whatever I want. I'm not going to have my Rani wind up like that woman," Gita said.

Rani sighed as she followed her parents and Sarah Jane out of the TARDIS, and they went to find K'anpo again. She had a feeling that she was going to have to do a lot of apologizing to the venerable old Time Lord later.

"She will be alright, won't she?" Henry asked Lady Jane.

"Of course she will. She said that she would so she will," Lady Jane said with no idea whether she was really alright or not.

She promised herself though that she would stay with Rani no matter what happened to her and do her best to help her through it. It was the least that she could do after what Rani had done for her.

Lady Jane took Henry back to his room where she planned on keeping him distracted while she told him a story from her past. She had found that the boy loved hearing her stories about what her life was like back in her own time so she had started telling him a different story every day.

She hadn't lived that long so she really didn't have that many stories to tell, but she certainly could tell the boy a lot of important details about her day to day life that often didn't make the history books. There may not have been much to her stories beyond her recollections of her time with her family and friends, but he seemed to be fascinated by them nonetheless. Maybe it was because up until now he had never had a family of his own.

"I hope she'll be alright," Maria said to Luke and Clyde with concern in her voice after Lady Jane and Henry left the room.

"Me too. She's been a good friend to all of us over the years, and Sky looks up to her like an older sister," Luke said with anxiety in his voice.

"She'll be fine. She's Rani. She's indestructible. I mean she's a Time Lord so that automatically means that she's going to be okay, right?" Clyde said in a state of denial.

"Of course it does," Maria lied.

"Well, now that that's been settled let's move onto something else. How are you doing, Maria? Are you going to be joining our little gang again and helping us fight aliens?" Clyde said in a cheerful voice.

Maria and Luke exchanged a look as they realized that Clyde was in an even worse state than they thought. He was acting like everything was normal.

"I'm fine, Clyde. I'm actually working with UNIT now. They sent me to put a stop to all of the attacks on Earth because of the bounty that was put out on Henry. I'm not sure what I'll be doing now that that's over with though. They could assign me somewhere else," Maria said.

"You're not staying?" Luke said in a sad voice.

"I'd like to but I have to go wherever UNIT sends me," Maria said apologetically.

"Sarah Jane's got a lot of pull with UNIT though, right? Maybe you could ask her to talk them into assigning you to us," Clyde said.

"Doing what?" Maria asked in an incredulous voice.

"You could be their official representative to us. You can keep them updated on what we're up to. You could also be there to warn them if we come across anything big, bad, and alien that they need to know about. Don't you worry, Maria! I'll ask Sarah Jane to talk to some of her UNIT pals and pull a few strings there for you. You're not going anywhere if we can help it. We've all missed you here. Some of us more than others," Clyde said as he winked at Luke.

Clyde walked off to go find Sarah Jane and the others leaving Luke and Maria alone to talk. Maria smiled at Luke as he suddenly became awkward and shy around her.

"What did he mean with that remark about some of you missing me more than others?" Maria asked.

"I have no idea. I mean I've certainly missed you of course. I've missed you every day since you left but certainly no more than the others have," Luke said.

"You've missed me?" Maria asked as she drew closer to Luke.

"Yeah, of course I have. You were my first friend. I'll always have a special place in my heart for you," Luke said.

"Is that all I am to you? A friend?" Maria asked as she stood face to face with him now.

"I . . . ," Luke said not knowing what to say.

"The smartest boy in the world and you don't have anything better than that to say to me?" Maria teased him.

Then she kissed his cheek and hugged him tightly as she said, "I don't how you feel about me, but I've missed you, Luke. I certainly missed you more than anyone else in the group. I've always regretted not telling you how I really felt about you before I left. I always thought that you felt the same way about me too."

Luke struggled to speak as he said, "How do you feel about me?"

Maria took a deep breath, and then she kissed him on the lips. It was a short, tender kiss, but it successfully conveyed her feelings to Luke without words.

Luke began to smile, and he returned the kiss. The two of them embraced one another then as Luke said, "I wish I had told you how I felt too. Do you think that we could still pick up where we left off?"

"I don't see why not," Maria said with a warm smile as she kissed Luke again.

Clyde watched the two of them with a smile as he accidentally walked in on them. Then he walked back out again without commenting for once. Score one for Clyde Langer, Couples Councilor!

Not that he wanted to go into that business professionally of course. He just knew that his two friends were meant to be together that's all. He had always known that from the first day that he had met them.

Now if only Sarah Jane could manage to convince the bosses at UNIT to let her stay with them then everything would be perfect. Well almost perfect. He was still just a little worried about Rani. What if she wasn't so indestructible after all?

He couldn't let himself even think about that though. If anything were to ever happen to Rani, he would go mad.

Meanwhile back on Earth, events were happening that would soon come back to haunt all of Sarah Jane's group as a group of men began to sit around each other in a circle and concentrate. They had come to this secluded mansion in the middle of rural England in order to accomplish the impossible.

Today they were going to bring back the dead.

They were all deep in meditation and had their minds all focused on that one single purpose as they concentrated on a mental image of a long lost alien being. As they focused their minds, an eerie spectral image began to appear in front of them that began to slowly take shape until it became a jackal headed man.

This was Anubis, one of the Osirians. He, like Sutekh, was a member of a group of aliens who had once been worshipped on Earth as god thousands of years ago. He had been killed by Sutekh long ago in his war against the other Osirians when he rebelled against them.

"Well done. You've managed to create enough psychic energy among you that I have been able to manifest on this plane of existence for a short time. I will need much more energy in order to become whole once more though. I will need a source of tremendous psychic power in order to return to this dimension permanently once again. Have you managed to locate such a source yet?" Anubis asked.

"I believe we have, Master. We have detected a source of incredible power in Earth's orbit. We are sending a satellite up now to investigate it. Whatever it is may be the key to successfully reviving you forever," one of Anubis' followers said.

"Good. When that day comes, I will establish dominion over this world, and all of you will become its masters in my name just as I promised. The rest of the human race will become my servants to do with as I will. Anyone who joins me will live, and anyone who opposes me will die. I will establish a new empire. An empire of death," Anubis said an evil laugh.

**Next: K'anpo studies Rani's mind and tells her the truth about what's happening to her. Will she be able to handle it? Also the followers of Anubis discover Iceworld. What will they do next?**


	14. Anubis Strikes

CHAPTER 14

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

ANUBIS STRIKES

After thoroughly examining Rani's mind for a long time, K'anpo said, "Rani, you can never use these new powers of yours again."

"Why? What's wrong with me?" Rani asked in a low voice.

"Tell us. Right now! We deserve to know," Gita said in an upset voice.

"Gita, calm down! I'm sure that he's going to tell us in a minute, Haresh said.

"Right now your mind is perfectly normal so you have nothing to worry about at the moment. I want to stress that. As of now, you're alright. You'll continue to stay that way as long as you never use these new powers that Kali has given to you. If you ever start using them, you're going to run the risk of doing permanent brain damage to yourself. I need you to understand that. You must never use them again or your mind could be damaged beyond repair," K'anpo said.

"Isn't there any way that you can remove them so that she doesn't use them by mistake?" Gita said as she became more upset.

"No. Even I don't understand what Kali did to get them to manifest in the first place so I can't undo it. It's like nothing that I've ever seen before," K'anpo said.

"The Black Guardian taught her a few new tricks I think. She must want Rani out of the way for some reason," Sarah Jane said.

"Well, she won't get her way if I can help it. I'll fight her and this Kali person too if I have to," Gita promised.

"If I were them, I'd be quaking in my boots right now," Rani said with a grin.

"They'd better be," Gita said with a slight smile.

Sarah Jane was proud of Rani for trying to make her mother smile. She knew that inwardly Rani was just as upset as Gita was if not more so, but she was still trying to make her feel better despite that.

"You're just going to have to resist using these powers of yours for any reason. You can't use them no matter what. Okay?" K'anpo said to Rani.

"I understand. I won't use them. I don't want to wind up like Kali. Believe me on that," Rani said.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't help you any further. Maybe Rose could do something. You should probably try talking to her next," K'anpo asked.

"I'll do that. Thanks, K'anpo," Rani said as she gave him a hug.

"I'm sorry. I really wish I could do something else," K'anpo whispered to her during the hug.

"I know you did your best. Don't worry about it," Rani said.

"I always worry about it. I hate not knowing about something especially when it could save someone's life," K'anpo said in distress.

"It's okay. I can control myself. I can avoid using my powers if I want to. I'm not even sure how to use half of them anyway. The only one that I'm worried about is this perception filter one where people don't recognize me that should. That seemed to happen even when I didn't want it to," Rani said.

"It must not have done anything to you to use that particular one because your mind is still okay. I think it's more the higher level powers like telekinesis that you have to really worry about. I recommend not using any of them consciously though, not even the perception filter one, just to make sure," K'anpo said.

"I won't. You don't have to worry about that. You didn't have any problems recognizing me, did you?" Rani asked curiously.

"No. That might be because I already know who you are though. Maybe it only works to hide your identity from people who don't know who you are yet. From what you told me about what happened to you in Leonardo's Workshop that would make sense. The Doctor and the Rani of that time both believed you to be dead so neither of them would have expected for you to turn out to be Annika," K'anpo said.

"That could come in handy if I want to travel into the past some more in the future and accidentally bump into one of my old friends again," Rani said.

"He said that you shouldn't use the powers at all, Rani," Gita said.

"Yeah but that particular one seems to work whether I want it to or not. It's like it protects my secret identity or something," Rani said with a grin.

"Rani, don't take this so lightly," Gita said.

"I'm not. I'm just trying to stay positive, Mum," Rani said.

"I think that she's handling it very well, Gita," Haresh said.

"She's handling it exceptionally well. I'd probably already be going to pieces," Sarah Jane said.

"No, you wouldn't. You're the strongest person I've ever known," Rani said without hesitation.

"Thank you. That's a huge compliment considering the company that puts me in," Sarah Jane said with a warm smile.

"I really mean it, Sarah Jane. You're a lot stronger than you think. There's a reason that you were the Doctor's favorite companion," Rani said.

"How do you know that?" Sarah Jane said with a slight blush on her face.

"I can tell, Sarah Jane. I can tell by the way that he looks at you and talks about you. I could tell it from the way that he looked at you even back in the past too. You were already his favorite then," Rani said.

"What about Rose? He never kissed me like that," Sarah Jane said with a grin.

"Well, yeah. Rose would rate just a bit higher, but she doesn't really count as a companion anymore I don't think since she turned out to be his wife," Rani said with a giggle.

"So that's the woman that K'anpo was talking about then? She's the Doctor's wife?" Gita asked.

"Yes, she was a human who traveled with the Doctor like I did until she found out that she was actually a Time Lord and the Doctor's first wife. It's a long story," Sarah Jane said as she saw the confused looks on the faces of Rani's parents.

"I imagine so. I think we should save that for some other time. Why don't we go see her now?" Haresh suggested.

"I'll call her and get her to meet us at UNIT's parking lot. That's where all of the cool kids go to meet these days it seems," Rani said with a smile.

Gita frowned at her for having such a flippant attitude as Rani said in a serious voice, "I told you that I'm trying to stay positive, Mum. It really helps me. It keeps me from falling apart, okay?"

"Alright, honey. If it helps you," Gita said.

"It does, Mum. It really does. I guess it's something that I picked up from Clyde. He's always positive no matter what even when he's terrified on the inside," Rani said with a fond smile.

Haresh frowned at the mention of Clyde's name, and Rani couldn't help but smile. She could tell that it was going to take a lot more convincing to get him to like the idea of her and Clyde being together. He was going to have to accept it sooner or later though because as far as she was concerned Clyde was in her life to stay.

Rani, her parents, and Sarah Jane headed back to her TARDIS to tell the others what K'anpo had said only to find Maria and Luke kissing passionately as soon as they entered the TARDIS. Rani blushed but was not surprised. She knew how Luke felt about Maria a long time ago just from the way that he had always talked about her.

Clyde came up to Rani from behind and silently led her and the others back out of the TARDIS. He thought that Luke deserved to have this little romantic moment of his in peace.

"I never knew that you were so romantic, Clyde," Rani said with amusement as soon as they were out of earshot of Luke and Maria.

"There are a lot of things that you don't know about me even now, Rani. You're going to slowly find out though. There are many, many layers to Clyde Langer. I'm very complex and complicated," Clyde said with a grin.

"Really? You never seemed that complicated. You always acted like a clown to me," Haresh said.

"Dad!" Rani said in an angry voice.

Sarah Jane tried not to laugh as Clyde said with a mischievous smile, "That was just my outermost layer."

Sarah Jane had to admit that despite Rani's current danger that she was very happy for all of her kids in this moment. Rani and Clyde were finally together, and Luke and Maria had apparently admitted to themselves how they felt about each other all along. Sarah Jane would be ecstatic to have Maria as a daughter-in-law. She had always loved Maria and already thought of her as a daughter so bringing her into the family would be perfect. Of course she might be jumping the gun just a bit since Luke was only kissing her, but she could still dream, couldn't she? That was a mother's prerogative after all.

Luke and Maria's magic moment was finally ruined as Henry and Lady Jane came into the Console Room, and Henry said, "What are you two doing? That's disgusting!"

"You won't think so in a few years, Henry," Luke said as he smiled at him.

Everyone else came back inside at that moment after having heard this exchange, and Luke and Maria both blushed. They realized that the others had been outside listening. Sarah Jane decided that since they both knew now that they had been found out anyway that she might as well congratulate them.

"I'm so happy for both of you," Sarah Jane said as she hugged them both.

"Mum!" Luke said as became even more embarrassed.

Maria only smiled as she began to wonder if Clyde's idea to keep her here would work. She really hoped that it would. She didn't ever want to be parted from Luke again especially after she had waited so long to see him.

Henry looked at the whole spectacle with a frown. He was worried about his mother, and all the others could do was go on and on about her two friends kissing. Who cared?

_They're trying to stay positive, Henry. I received some bad news, but it doesn't mean that anything's going to happen to me. I'm not going anywhere I promise._ Rani said in his mind even as the others talked.

Then Henry started to tear up as she telepathically explained what K'anpo had said to her. She walked over to him and put her arms around him to console him as he began to break down.

Rani's parents looked at each other sadly as they realized that she must have told Henry the whole story telepathically while Clyde looked at the two of them in confusion. Rani was going to be alright. Everyone knew that. Nothing was going to happen to her, right?

Even as Rani finally told the others what K'anpo had said, Clyde's hope refused to dim. He still insisted to himself that she was going to be okay. Everyone was all worried about nothing. They would see.

Rani saw the look of denial on his face and immediately realized that he was going to take this very hard when it eventually sank through into his thick skull. Until then though, Rani could only hope that his endless optimism was proven to be right. Maybe she would be alright.

Just before Rani could dematerialize the TARDIS to go find Rose though, several men in hooded robes suddenly appeared out of nowhere inside of the Console Room and grabbed her. She looked at them in shock as she wondered how this was even possible. Nothing should be able to reach her inside of the TARDIS!

"Rani!" Gita shouted in terror.

Clyde rushed to help Rani, but he was quickly knocked out cold by a mental blast from a figure with the head of a jackal who appeared in the middle of the hooded men. Even in a weakened state, Anubis had incredible power.

"The Time Lord is now mine," Anubis said as both he and the robed figures disappeared and took Rani with him.

"It's just like Sutekh," Sarah Jane said in fear.

"What?" Luke asked.

"Sutekh was the only being that I've ever known to be able to break into a TARDIS like that. That creature looked just like the Egyptian god Anubis. Whatever it was, it must have been an Osirian. They were supposed to have been worshipped as gods on Earth once. The Doctor said that Sutekh was the last one, but what if he was wrong," Sarah Jane said.

"This Sutekh wasn't any pushover either, was he? I've heard you talk about him before," Luke said.

"No, he wasn't. If this Anubis is anything like Sutekh then Rani is in incredible danger. We have to find her quickly," Sarah Jane said.

"How though?" Maria asked.

"Maybe I could use Rani's TARDIS to find her. I've been studying its controls, and I think that I know how to use it to track her down or at least how to track down who took her anyway. They must have incredible psychic energy to be able to do what they just did so I'll have the TARDIS track down all sources of psychic energy on Earth," Luke said as he rushed to the Console.

He quickly used the TARDIS' instruments to locate two powerful sources of psychic energy on Earth in the same area and reasoned that one must be Rani and the other must be Anubis. He smiled in triumph as he said, "I've found them. Now I just have to figure out how to set the coordinates for the TARDIS to send us there."

"Allow me," a female voice said behind him.

Luke turned to see Rose Tyler smiling at him in amusement as she said, "You're good, Luke. I bet you could understand how to pilot the TARDIS given time. Unfortunately we don't have time. We need to find Rani and stop Anubis right now before he can come back into our universe again."

"I'm so glad to see you, Rose. So you already know about Anubis?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Yeah, I do. I could feel him using all of that energy of his to find and capture Rani in the form of an enormous psychic energy spike coming from Iceworld. I arrived just in time to see Anubis leaving. I wish I could have stopped him," Rose said with an apologetic look on her face.

"You need to help Rani," Gita immediately said to Rose.

"I know. I'm going after her right now," Rose said.

"Yes, I know but that's not the way I meant," Gita said desperately.

"I know what you meant. I'm going to help her, Gita. I'll do my best anyway. That's why I came here. I didn't just happen to be passing by you know. K'anpo told me that she needed my help. I just wish I had gotten here a little bit sooner. I always did have a rotten sense of timing. Not as bad as the Doctor's though. At least I don't tell someone twelve hours and it turns into a year," Rose complained as she set the coordinates of the TARDIS to send them to the location of Anubis' followers.

Suddenly the image of Anubis appeared inside of the TARDIS and began to possess Gita and Haresh. Then they both disappeared into thin air right in front of everyone.

Anubis spoke in Rani's mind as he said, "Use your powers now to free me, or I'll use what little power I do have to kill your mother and father. Do you think I'm bluffing? Watch and see."

Rani's parents suddenly appeared out of nowhere right in front of her and were immediately surrounded by Anubis' followers who held large knives to their throats. Rani gasped in terror as Anubis said, "I want you to use your incredible psychic energy to bring me back into this world so that I can be whole again. If you don't, I'll have my followers kill them!"

It was either commit psychic suicide or watch her parents get killed right in front of her. Rani realized that she really didn't have much of a choice.

"Take us to them now!" Sarah Jane shouted in concern.

"I'm trying but somehow Anubis fused the controls of the TARDIS. It won't let it materialize, and I don't have time to fix it. If he's already this powerful now, I hate to see what he'll be like when he comes back completely," Rose said.

She tried to travel there by herself with her own powers, but she was blocked from getting inside of the house of Anubis' followers directly by Vortex shielding. She would have to get in the old fashioned way and hope that she wasn't too late she thought to herself as she materialized outside of the house and started to use her Vortex screwdriver to break into the front door.

Before she could do that though, Kali suddenly appeared out of nowhere and took her completely by surprise. Before Rose could protect herself, Kali punched her in the jaw knocking her out cold. Kali smiled as she waited for her ultimate trap for Rani to be complete. Soon Rani would be no more. Either she would be as insane as she was or a vegetable. Either way would suit her just fine.

**Next: Will Rani help Anubis? If so, what will happen to her brain? Will Rose wake up in time to help her? For that matter, will Sarah Jane and the others ever be able to get out of the Vortex again? **


	15. The Rebirth of Rani Chandra

CHAPTER 15

I do not own Doctor Who or The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

THE REBIRTH OF RANI CHANDRA

"Well, what is your answer? Will you help me or watch them die?" Anubis asked.

"Rani, don't!" Gita managed to somehow say in a weak voice despite Anubis' control over her.

"Amazing. She must have an extremely strong emotional connection to you to be able to override my power like that. Do you really want to let her die?" Anubis said.

"No. I'd never let anything happen to them. Let's do this," Rani said.

"Excellent. I know what this will cost you by the way. If you wish to say your goodbyes before you start, you may go ahead and do so now. I'm not a total monster," Anubis said.

"Goodbye, Mum, Dad. I love you. Goodbye, Clyde. I love you too, and I hope that you're okay wherever you are. Goodbye, Sarah Jane. I wouldn't change a thing. It was the best time of my life. Goodbye, Henry. Please take care of him, Mum," Rani said even though most of the people that she wanted to talk to weren't even in the room as the tears started rolling down her face.

"That's enough. Let's begin now. I will be made whole once more," Anubis finally ordered her.

Rani closed her eyes and began to concentrate on a mental image of Anubis in her mind as she silently willed the long dead Osirian back into existence. Even as Anubis began to solidify and regain his form, Rani could feel her mind changing and her perceptions altering. She was terrified that she was about to destroy herself at any moment, but she knew that she couldn't stop now. She had to save her parents.

"Yes! Yes!" Anubis said in triumph as he stood before his followers as a fully corporeal being once more for the first time in several millennia.

Rani knew now that she had passed the point of no return as she felt her mind shutting down and collapsing. Even as she could feel herself beginning to pass out, her last thoughts were for her friends. With her newly expanded senses, she could feel them and the TARDIS lost and adrift in the Vortex. She reached out to them and used her last conscious moments to guide her TARDIS back home. As soon as she felt the TARDIS materializing safely back at Sarah Jane's house, she finally stopped fighting and collapsed on the ground at Anubis' feet.

Anubis looked at her unmoving form with sympathy as he said, "Hers was a noble soul. I will remember her with honor. After all, if it wasn't for her my new empire would have never had a chance to be born."

One of Anubis' followers examined Rani's body and said, "She is dead, lord. What shall we do with her and her parents?"

"Release the parents. She gave her life for them, and I respect that. Bury the body in one of your kind's sacred places. Now we will speak no more of her. We must walk ahead into the future. It will be a future that you and I will both create together where you will be made the new rulers of this planet, and I will become the master of all of creation," Anubis said as he left the room.

Anubis' followers quickly followed after him taking Rani's parents along with them. No one was left in the room to see what happened next as Rani's body began to slowly glow with energy.

Sometime later, Rose found herself being roughly shaken awake where she lay outside the house by Gita who had just come back to her senses after Anubis' followers let her and Haresh go. Gita was extremely upset so Rose didn't understand a word that she was saying to her because she kept sobbing so loudly even as she tried to speak to her.

She got the gist of it though by Gita's tone. Anubis was back because Rani had died saving them from his followers. Rose was instantly filled with anger and was resolved either to bring Rani back to life or avenge her death in some way if she needed to.

"Can you bring her back? Please say that you can bring her back. You must have some futuristic gadget or something that you can use to make her come back. Please!" Gita pleaded with Rose.

"I'll do my best I promise," Rose said in a gentle voice.

She actually managed to use her Vortex screwdriver to open the front door this time and the three of them raced inside the house to find Rani lying there glowing all over. Gita and Haresh looked at Rose for an explanation, but she had none. Whatever was going on here was not regeneration. She wasn't sure what it was.

Kali, spying on all of this from her hidden vantage point in a darkened corner of the next room over from where Rani's body now lay, did recognize the light surrounding Rani though. It was the same kind of light that she had seen briefly surrounding Oswin when she had first come back to life after Kali had killed her.

Kali suddenly appeared next to Rani and surprised Rose as she said, "She's another Guardian. She's dying and coming back to life as a Guardian just like Oswin did. Of course _she_ would be one, wouldn't she? It seems that I'll never be rid of her. The universe just seems to enjoy playing such cruel jokes on me. Annika is the worst one of them all it seems."

"It couldn't happen to a nicer person, Kali," Rose said.

"I really don't want to be this horrible creature that I've become. Surely you must know that. None of this is my fault. I fought my affliction as hard as I could just like Koschei fought the drums. We both ultimately ended up losing to our own unique brand of madness though, didn't we? You forgave and helped him, Bad Wolf. Why can't you forgive and help me?" Kali said in a pleading voice.

"It's because unlike Koschei, you don't want to stop. You're enjoying it. You really don't want to change," Rose said.

"I could try if you'd help me. Even now I'm learning all that I can about the Black Guardian's plans so that I can betray her when the time is right. Doesn't that mean anything?" Kali asked.

"Yes, it means that you just want revenge on the Celestial Intervention Agency who are working along with her not that you really want to change," Rani said as she slowly got up off of the floor.

"Rani! Are you alright?" Gita asked as she ran to hug her.

"Rani, they told us that you were dead. How did you come back to life, and what was that strange glowing around you?" Haresh asked.

"Hello! I believe that I told you that already. She's a Guardian," Kali said in an annoyed voice.

"I was glowing? Is that why I haven't gone mad like K'anpo warned? Exactly what's going on here, Rose?" Rani asked in complete surprise.

"What is this? Am I invisible?" Kali asked.

"Do us all a favor, Kali, and shut up," Rose said in a cold voice.

"Is what she said true? Am I a Guardian? How?" Rani asked in a tone of disbelief.

Rose's eyes glowed with power as she used her enhanced senses on Rani. She studied her with them intently for several minutes before finally speaking.

"Yes, you're a Guardian now too. Dying has apparently given you a stronger body with a stronger mind that can handle your new powers without making you go mad. It's happened to you just like it did to Oswin recently. Both of you died and came back to life as a Guardian. Don't ask me why or how though. I still don't know. I'm also not sure which one that you are yet. I guess we'll all find out soon enough," Rose said.

"I can't believe that we all wasted the last few minutes waiting on you to tell us what I already knew a long time ago. I saw what happened to Oswin, Arkytior. I was there. I made it happen, and to my regret it blew up in my face then just like it has now," Kali said.

"You knocked me out and prevented me from saving Rani, didn't you?" Rose suddenly realized.

"Yes, not that it did me any good. Annika just won't stay dead. Why can't I kill you?" Kali said to Rani in frustration.

"Shut up!" Gita screamed as she suddenly punched Kali in the face without warning and quickly knocked her out.

"Gita!" Haresh said as he looked at her in complete shock.

Rani looked at her with an impressed look on her face as she said, "I never knew she had it in her."

"I did warn her to shut up. I knew she was going to do that sooner or later," Rose said with a grin.

"How? My mum's usually so gentle," Rani asked.

"If I was your mother, it's what I would do," Rose admitted.

"It's what any mother would do when someone just keeps coming after their baby," Gita said.

Rani looked at Kali with scorn as she said, "And she wondered why you didn't want to help her."

"I can't help her until she wants to help herself. We shouldn't be worried about her right now though. Anubis is back, isn't he? If he's anything like Sutekh, we have to stop him right now while we still can," Rose said.

"_If _we still can," Rani said.

"Don't worry about it. It'll be easy. Surely a Time Goddess and a Guardian of Time can easily send old Jackal Face packing in no time," Rose said with a smug grin on her face.

"You're calling yourself a Time Goddess now? Don't you think that's just a little bit arrogant?" Rani teased her.

"I can be arrogant just this once if it makes me feel better about the kind of incredible danger that we're about to be charging into, can't I?" Rose asked.

"I'd say that we could use all of the confidence builders that we can get," Sarah Jane said from behind them.

"Sarah Jane! How did you get here so quickly? Your house is miles away from here," Rani said.

"I got a lift from an old friend of mine," Sarah Jane said as she pointed toward a certain familiar blue box that they could now see standing in the background.

"I decided to get in on all of the action since everyone else was having fun without me," the Doctor said with a mischievous grin on his face.

"How did you even know to come here?" Rose asked with a pleased look on her face.

"You took off without saying a word. I always know that you're up to something whenever you do that. That's why I used my Bad Wolf detector to find you," the Doctor said as he held up a small handheld device that was glowing intensely.

"A Bad Wolf detector?" Sarah Jane asked in amusement.

"It detects any intense Vortex energy emissions in the vicinity. I created it to follow Rose around with since she became pregnant and started getting sick," the Doctor said with an undercurrent of worry in his voice.

Sarah Jane realized now that it wasn't Anubis that had brought him to her door at all but his worry about Rose instead. She thought it was very sweet.

"I'm fine right now. Stop worrying over me like a mother hen," Rose said.

"Someone has to keep you out of trouble," the Doctor said.

"You seem to have things a little mixed up, Doctor. It's me that keeps you out of trouble," Rose said.

"Do they do this all of the time?" Haresh asked Rani as the two Time Lords continued to argue over who was there to protect who.

"They've been doing this for centuries," Rani said with a grin.

"You've certainly got that right, and don't I know it," Clara said as she led the way out of the TARDIS with Clyde, Luke, Henry, and Lady Jane following close behind her.

"Who are you?" Gita asked.

"My name's Clara Oswald. It's nice to meet you. It's my job to take care of those two and keep them both out of trouble. It seems that I've fallen down on the job today," Clara said as she shook both Gita and Haresh's hands.

The Doctor pouted at this statement while Rose was amused at the truthfulness of it.

"She's the newest version of me," Sarah Jane said to Rani's parents.

"Hardly. I'm nowhere near as good as you were. You're my role model. I swear you must have had the patience of a saint. I especially don't know how you dealt with the Doctor with the long scarf. Cydonia worked with him once when the Sontarans invaded Gallifrey, and she ended up wanting to strangle him with that scarf before everything was over with," Clara said.

"Cydonia?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Oh, she's the Time Lady version of me that was created after what happened at Trenzalore," Clara explained.

"Oh. I see that your life is taking as many weird turns as mine did after meeting the Doctor. I think that yours has mine beat by a mile though," Sarah Jane said with a grin.

"I didn't understand one word of any of that," Gita said in complete confusion.

"I'll explain later or at least I'll try to. To be honest, I'm not sure that I understand all of it myself," Rani said.

"Shouldn't we be going after Anubis?" Sarah Jane reminded everyone.

"Oh, there's no big hurry. He'll wait. He's already waited a couple of thousand years after all," the Doctor said dismissively.

"Doctor, what did you do?" Sarah Jane asked.

She knew that look on his face very well. It always meant that he was right in the middle of carrying out some cunning plan that he couldn't bother to tell anyone else about at the time.

"Oh, nothing much! I just extended the TARDIS' shields around the immediate area and gave them a quick boost using power from Rani's TARDIS which was otherwise not being of much use at the moment. So we have the combined power of two TARDISes working together to keep big bad Anubis contained. He's not going anywhere," the Doctor said.

"Sutekh broke through the TARDIS' shields once, remember?" Sarah Jane reminded him.

"Yeah but he was much more powerful than Anubis. Sutekh actually killed Anubis so he must not be that impressive," the Doctor said smugly.

"What if you're wrong?" Sarah Jane asked.

"If I'm wrong, we'll know at any minute now," the Doctor said.

"How will we know?" Sarah Jane asked already dreading the answer.

"Well, it's not going to happen so you don't have to worry about. Basically though if Anubis somehow gets lucky and manages to escape then the resulting feedback will cause the TARDIS to . . . ," the Doctor started to say.

The TARDIS immediately shut down and its lights went out.

"Completely lose power and shut down?" Sarah Jane finished with a grin.

"Yeah, something like that," the Doctor mumbled as looked down at his shoes in embarrassment.

"Okay, Sarah Jane, now it's time for the rest of us to take on Anubis at last since someone just knocked the TARDIS completely offline . . . again," Rose said as she rolled her eyes at the Doctor.

"That only happened once. Until today," the Doctor protested.

"Sometime you're really going to have to tell me how you kept from killing him some days. I really need some tips," Clara said to Sarah Jane with a mad grin on her face.

Sarah Jane burst out laughing even as she and the others began to race off to find Anubis. She just hoped that it wasn't already too late to stop him.

She shuddered to think at what someone as powerful as Anubis could do to the Earth if they weren't able to stop him.

**Next: Sarah Jane and the others must face off against Anubis for the fate of the world even as Rani discovers exactly what she can do now and what Guardian she has become.**


	16. Two Guardians Are Better Than One

CHAPTER 16

I do not own Doctor Who, the Sarah Jane Adventures or Superman, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

TWO GUARDIANS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Anubis slowly walked toward a nuclear reactor that lay not far from the mansion where his followers had worked so hard to bring him back into existence. He would use the danger posed by this place to force the inhabitants of this world into making a choice. They would either follow him or he would blow the reactor up and potentially wipe out all life on the entire planet. He felt confident that they would make the right choice when he presented them with it.

He was suddenly stopped in his tracks by Rose who appeared in front of him in a burst of golden energy. She was quickly followed by the Doctor, Sarah Jane, Rani, and Clara with the others not far behind. They all quickly surrounded Anubis, and he began to laugh in amusement.

"Do you really think that you can stop me? Despite what you might think I don't fear you, Bad Wolf. There is only one among you who I fear, but she is as yet unaware of her true power. At the moment, she poses no real threat to me. The rest of you are nothing to me. You are like insects trying to kill a giant," Anubis said.

Rani wondered if the one that he was talking about was her. If so, then they were all out of luck. She had absolutely no idea what she could do yet or how to use any of her powers even if she did.

"Rani, can't you zap him or something? You're supposed to be like some kind of grand cosmic master now, aren't you?" Clyde asked.

"I don't know what I am. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing," Rani said in frustration.

"Join the club. The Doctor never does either," Clara joked.

"Oi! I'm standing right here," the Doctor said.

"So?" Clara said with a grin.

"If it makes you feel any better, I usually never know what I'm doing either. I just follow the Doctor's example and improvise. Like this," Rose admitted as she began to attack Anubis with massive bursts of Vortex energy.

Anubis laughed as he absorbed or deflected all of Rose's attacks with ease. He then casually flung her back with a sudden burst of telekinetic power, and she went flying towards the outer wall of the reactor at incredible speed with no way to stop herself.

"Rose!" the Doctor screamed as he worried about not only her but the baby.

Rani reached out with her own telekinetic power and tried her best to cushion Rose's landing as she poured every ounce of power that she had into cushioning the impact as much as possible. She kept imagining someone hitting a soft pillow and tried to recreate that sensation.

Rose smiled as she barely felt anything when she finally hit the wall. It was just as if she bumped into it instead. She realized that Rani's power was quickly growing. She just hoped that what she had now was good enough to stop Anubis with.

"Thanks, Rani. I really mean that," the Doctor said in an emotional voice.

"I just wish that I could do more. I can only use telekinesis so far. If I could do some of the things that Kali can, maybe we'd have a chance against that thing," Rani said.

"Well, then it's a good thing that I'm here then, isn't it? It's only natural though since I'm so much better than you are," Kali said as she suddenly came up behind Anubis and started using her power to attempt to control his mind.

"Do you really think that you can control me? I am an Osirian. I fought alone against Sutekh when everyone else had fallen in the defense of our world, and I alone out of all of my race came the closest to defeating him," Anubis said.

"A loser's still a loser no matter how close they came to winning. It's just like being pregnant, either you are or you aren't. You were a loser then, and you will be one again. I'm not about to let you destroy or enslave this world. The Black Guardian has big plans for it and so do I. Only she doesn't know my plans yet. No one does yet, but one day they will at the end when it's too late to do anything about them," Kali said as she increased her mind control power's effects on Anubis.

"You would know. From what I can see in your mind, you have a long history of it," Anubis said.

Kali screamed in frustration as Anubis took control of her mind instead of her being able to take control of his.

"A door once opened can be gone through either way, Kali. It is I who now controls you. Now, slave, fight for me. Hold them back until I can get inside the reactor," Anubis ordered.

Kali now began to attack the others against her will as she threw Rani several yards away with a telekinetic push as soon as she tried to get past her to get to Anubis.

"Any other time I'd enjoy that," Kali said in frustration.

As Anubis started to phase through the wall of the reactor and head towards its core, he was quickly grabbed from behind by Rose as she used her Vortex enhanced strength to toss him to the ground. She then unleashed every ounce of power that she could muster into his body as she said, "You just made a fatal mistake, Anubis. You just made me very, very angry. Do you know why? You just quoted Reinette!"

Anubis laughed as he now took control of Rose's mind as well and made her freeze in place with a single mental command. He stood over her in triumph as he said, "I know. I've been in your mind too. I know how much you despise her and how it would create enough of an emotional response to weaken your mental defenses and allow me access. Enough access to make you into my puppet as well. Kneel before me!"

Rose had no choice but to fall to her knees before him, and he laughed at her as he said, "By the way, Sutekh didn't defeat me because he was more powerful. He defeated me by trickery. I am far, far more powerful than he is as you are now coming to realize."

"Now join Kali and keep the rest of them back, won't you?" Anubis ordered Rose.

Rose now joined Kali in her attack on the others, but even Anubis couldn't make her go against her basic nature. Rose would not use lethal attacks no matter how hard he tried to make her. Anubis eventually stopped trying and was just satisfied in using her to stall for time.

Anubis smiled in triumph as he finally entered the reactor and headed for its core. He would soon have the lives of everyone on this planet in his hands. It would be up to them to decide what he should do next.

He didn't get that far though. Instead he found Sarah Jane Smith blocking his path with a small pendant in her hands. He immediately sensed that his existence was in peril, and he stood in front of her paralyzed by fear.

"This is a warp star, Anubis. It will create an explosion big enough to destroy not only me and you but also this entire planet. I don't want to use it, but I will in order to keep you from enslaving the human race," Sarah Jane said.

"Yes, you will, won't you? You almost did it before against the Daleks. You've always protected the balance. It's in your nature to keep evil in check and to prevent it from going any further than the natural order of things decrees that it should. It's your purpose in this universe, Sarah Jane Smith. Some might say your destiny," Anubis said as he started to glow with energy.

"I warn you that I'll do it. Don't try anything or I'll break it open," Sarah Jane said.

"Unfortunately for you, I don't believe in destiny, Miss Smith!" Anubis shouted as he blasted her with an enormous blast of energy so intense that it instantly killed her on the spot.

As Sarah Jane's body fell to the floor, Rani screamed in a combination of anger, despair, and pain behind Anubis. The ancient Osirian turned around to face her and laughed.

"The last hope that any of you had of defeating me is gone now. Now is the time for my reign over all of time and space to begin. Unfortunately, you won't be there to see it," Anubis said.

He blasted Rani with the same amount of energy that he had used to kill Sarah Jane, but this time it didn't have any effect. This time it was Rani who laughed as Anubis' power was deflected away by a red energy field that surrounded and protected her.

"No! You shouldn't be developing your abilities this soon. I still had time," Anubis said in frustration.

"I'd say that the sudden death of her mentor and best friend accelerated the learning process just a bit, wouldn't you?" Ishtar said as she suddenly appeared beside him.

"I won't fail. I still have time before her powers are complete," Anubis said as he began to attack Rani with every bit of power that he had.

As Rani's eyes glowed with crimson energy, Anubis' attack had suddenly been completely turned around and was heading right back towards him. Anubis didn't even have time to say anything in protest before he was hit by his own energy and knocked completely through several walls until he went flying straight out of the reactor.

Anubis wound up outside lying in the dust. Even as he got to his feet though, he was quickly confronted by an enraged Rani. The two of them clashed yet again as Anubis tried to break into her mind at the same time as he tried to drain the life force from her body. Neither attack worked though. Rani was no longer the person that she had been before. She knew who she was now. She was the Red Guardian, the Guardian of Truth and Justice. She smiled for a brief moment as she realized that this made her sound like Superman. Not that that was a bad thing.

Rose started to go help her only to be held back by the Doctor. The Doctor finally knew what day that this was now. He had studied the history of Sarah Jane Smith extensively, and he knew what was going to happen next. He began to smile. He was going to be so proud in a moment.

Back inside the reactor, Sarah Jane Smith returned to life with a gasp of air and saw Ishtar watching her with a huge smile on her face. She immediately got to her feet and started to race out of the reactor in an attempt to find Anubis and Rani even as Ishtar ran beside her.

"This feels good. You know I never run anymore these days. I should take it up as a hobby. It really makes you feel alive, doesn't it?" Ishtar asked.

"I don't have time to talk right now, Ishtar. Rani's in danger and so's the entire Earth. Aren't you going to do something about it?" Sarah Jane asked in frustration.

"I would but I thought I'd let you do the honors instead this time. Everyone's got to have a little boost of self-confidence their first time out on the job," Ishtar said with barely disguised glee on her face.

"What are you being so insufferably happy about? Don't you realize what danger that the human race is in?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Not anymore. Not with its protector coming to save the day. It's Sarah Jane defending the Earth just like in the old days. Exactly like the old days as a matter of fact or haven't you noticed how you've been running all of this time without getting the least bit tired or out of breath?" Ishtar asked.

Sarah Jane looked at her in puzzlement until she got a quick glimpse of her hands. They looked young again just like they had when she had traveled with the Doctor. She started to wonder what was going on but quickly halted all such thoughts as she finished her journey outside of the reactor and found Rani and Anubis fighting directly in front of her.

"Hold it right there, Anubis. I've still got the warp star, and I still intend to use it if you don't leave this planet right now," Sarah Jane threatened.

"I've waited too long. It's too late now," Anubis said to himself with dread.

Rani gasped in surprise as she saw that Sarah Jane now looked just like she had when she had met her in Leonardo's Workshop with the Fourth Doctor. Somehow she had regained her youth along with her life.

"You don't need the warp star anymore, Sarah Jane. Just snap your fingers," Ishtar told her.

"What?" Sarah Jane asked in confusion.

"Go ahead. Do it," Ishtar encouraged her.

Sarah Jane shrugged her shoulders and snapped her fingers as she kept her eyes locked firmly on Anubis. To her complete and utter surprise, Anubis screamed in rage as he completely disintegrated right in front of her and blew away as dust on the wind.

Unwatched and unnoticed by anyone else in the wake of what had just happened, Kali quickly teleported away now that she had been freed from Anubis' mental control. She was not sticking around to risk becoming the next person to be blown up.

"What's going on? How did she do that, and why does she look so young now?" Luke asked in astonishment.

"Guess who's just become another Guardian," Rose answered with a smile.

"I know. It's wonderful, isn't it?" the Doctor said with pride.

"Did you always know?" Rose asked.

"Not always but I've known for quite some time now. I always knew that she was special though," the Doctor said.

"So did I from the first time that I met her. It was why I felt so threatened by her," Rose admitted.

"No one could ever take your place in my life, Rose. No one," the Doctor reassured her as he gave her a tender kiss.

"Here we go again. It's Sarah Jane's big moment, and you two are too busy snogging to enjoy it. Typical," Clara said with a chuckle.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Clyde asked.

"I'll tell you as soon as I know, Clyde. I still haven't figured it out yet myself," Sarah Jane said.

"Let me do the honors. You died, Sarah Jane, and now you've been reborn," Ishtar said.

"What?" Sarah Jane asked in shock.

"It's true. I felt you die, Sarah Jane. Now you're back though just like I was," Rani said with a warm smile all over her face.

Sarah Jane looked at her hands now with her eyes wide open as a sudden realization of what had just happened to her finally showed on her face at last. She was a Guardian!

"Which one am I?" Sarah Jane asked even as she felt as if this wasn't real. It was like she was in a dream.

"You're the Azure Guardian, the Guardian of Balance. It's your job to try to keep me, Discord, and all of the other Guardians in line. Good luck with that by the way," Ishtar said as she giggled.

"I don't want this. I was happy just guarding the Earth from Bannerman Road. I don't want these powers. I don't deserve them. I'm no one special. Why don't you give them to Rose instead? She's the one who's a hero not me," Sarah Jane protested.

"I didn't give you your powers, Sarah Jane. From what I've seen, the universe or chance or fate or whatever you want to call it is the one who picks the people it wants to give this responsibility to. That's certainly how I got this job. It just sort of happened. Although I have a feeling that I'm just a placeholder for someone else until they decide that they want the job back again," Ishtar said as she looked at Rose.

"I'm going to get a head as big as the Doctor's if you two don't stop with the undeserved compliments," Rose said with a laugh.

"I don't want to leave Bannerman Road or my family and friends," Sarah Jane said.

"You don't have to. You can still stay here and do exactly what you did before. Only now you'll have to do a few extra duties in addition to that. Basically you're just be doing what you always did, Sarah Jane, only on a much larger scale," Ishtar explained.

The Doctor smiled at Sarah Jane as he said, "This is what you've been building up to your entire life, Sarah Jane. All of that traveling that you did with me, all of your solo adventures in the years after that, and everything that you and the kids have been doing at Bannerman Road in the last few years has all led up to this. It's all been teaching you and preparing you for this moment. This is your time to shine, Sarah Jane Smith. Now go out there and show the universe what you've got."

Sarah Jane gave him a warm smile as she hugged him tightly. The two of them embraced for a long time and then as they broke apart Sarah Jane asked, "You knew, didn't you?"

"Of course, I did. I know everything. Well, everything worth knowing anyway. Sarah Jane, I want you to promise me something," the Doctor said with a solemn look on his face.

"Anything, Doctor. What is it?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Promise me that you'll never say that you're not special ever again. I only take the best, and you're the best of the best," the Doctor said with a grin.

"I promise, Doctor," Sarah Jane said as she hugged him again in appreciation for his words.

And that was how the second life of Sarah Jane Smith began. Her story truly would go on forever.

**Next: Even as Sarah Jane and Rani both try to get used to their new lives as Guardians, the seventh and last Guardian is finally revealed at last. Will this last Guardian turn out to be a friend or a bitter enemy?**


	17. The Last Guardian Revealed

CHAPTER 17

I do not own Doctor Who or the Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

THE LAST GUARDIAN REVEALED

Even as she watched her just going about her daily activities at home just like she usually would, Sky couldn't help but stare at Sarah Jane in amazement. She couldn't believe how young she looked now. She even acted younger. She was still her mother without a doubt, but she was beginning to seem more and more like her older sister as well. It was very confusing.

As Sarah Jane saw the look on her face, she smiled as she said, "You know I went through something just like what you're going through myself once when the Doctor changed his appearance. I was a little put off by it at first and wondered if it would change how he felt about me. I soon realized though that despite his change in appearance, personality, and level of sanity that he was still my friend and that he still felt exactly the same about me that he had before. I know that this is going to take some getting used to, but I want you to know that nothing's changed between us despite my change in appearance. I'm still your mother, and I still love you, Sky."

Sky smiled at her as she said, "I know. It's just so weird. Like you said, it's going to take a while for me to get used to it. I know that I will though. Don't worry about that. I'm just so happy for you. I'm glad that if anyone was going to get a gift like this that it was you. So what's it like? Being a Guardian?"

"To be honest, I don't feel any different at least not physically. It's a little intimidating though," Sarah Jane admitted.

"Why?" Sky asked.

"I've been given all of this power that I have no idea how to use and told that I'm supposed to use it maintain balance in the universe whatever that means. How would you feel?" Sarah Jane said.

"I'd be terrified. I'm not you though. You're never afraid, and you always know what to do. That's why you're a perfect choice to be a Guardian," Sky said.

Sarah Jane smiled at her as she said, "Well, I hope that I live up to your faith in me. I'm certainly going to try. Now I'm beginning to know how Rani's been feeling lately since it happened to her. I'm glad that I have her, you, Luke, and the rest of our friends around. If I didn't, I'm not sure what I'd do."

"You'd save the world and do it in style just like you always do. I have no doubts about that," Rani said as she suddenly appeared in the middle of the room out of nowhere.

"That is so cool! Since when did you start doing that?" Sky asked in amazement.

"Since today. I just learned how an hour ago," Rani said.

"How did you learn? Did Ishtar teach you?" Sarah Jane asked.

"No. It just kind of happened. I started wondering if I could do it, and then I just did it. I'm starting to think that all I have to do is concentrate on doing something hard enough and I can do anything that I want to. It seems to be working so far. Watch," Rani said with a grin.

She teleported from one corner of the room to another several times over and over again until she started making Sarah Jane and Sky dizzy from following her. Then she finally mercifully stopped and started to show them both a new power that she had also just recently discovered that she had as she suddenly turned invisible right in front of them.

"I wish I could do that. I'd love to be invisible so that I could know what certain people think about me when they don't know that I'm there," Sky said with a smile.

"By certain people, do you mean boys?" Rani's voice asked in amusement from somewhere behind Sky.

"Could be. I'm not saying who though," Sky said with a laugh.

Sarah Jane smiled at her. She was growing up so fast. It wasn't too long ago when she had absolutely no interest in boys whatsoever. She wondered though what Sky would do if any of her relationships ever became serious. Would she tell them what she was? She was only thinking about it because she wasn't sure herself what she would tell anyone that she might someday be interested in.

She could already imagine how that conversation would go now. Well, I used to travel through time and space with an alien in a blue box. Then I started to protect the world from alien invasions myself for decades. Yes, I said decades. You see I'm not as young as I look. I'm really in my sixties. Oh, and I'm a Guardian of Time, which from what I can tell makes me a major universal force. Honey? Honey? I guess he passed out!

Sarah Jane almost laughed as that scenario played out in her mind. She hoped that both she and Sky had better luck then that in real life. Whoever they might meet though would have to be someone really special to stick around after they told them the whole truth about themselves. She just hoped that both of them would be lucky enough to meet someone that special or at least that Sky would.

That was when Kali suddenly appeared in the middle of the living room with an extremely frightened expression on her face as she said, "Help me!"

Rani immediately became visible once more and said, "Don't even think of trying anything, Kali."

Kali looked at her with a pleading expression on her face as she said, "I'm dying. Please help me, Rani. I know that I've been rotten to you, but for Ushas' sake please help me. Please!"

"Why should I? You ruined my life for centuries, and on top of that you almost killed me recently. I would be dead right now if it were left up to you," Rani said.

"I know and I'm so sorry about all of that. Please forgive me," Kali said.

"You're only apologizing because you're afraid," Rani said.

"Rani," Sarah Jane said in a disapproving tone.

Rani sighed as she said, "Sometimes I hate being one of the good guys."

Rani wondered if she could heal people. Now was as good a time as any to find out she supposed.

She put her hands on Kali's shoulders as she got ready to give it a try even as she said, "What happened to you anyway?"

"The Black Guardian found out that I'm not really on her side when she caught me eavesdropping on her just now. She did something to this body as a result. She just snapped her fingers at me, and I started feeling like my entire body was on fire. She said that I was going to die. Please, help me make it back to my original body. It's in my TARDIS, but I didn't have the strength to get back to it. Please take me there," Kali said in a terrified voice.

"Just think about its location, and I'll teleport us there," Rani said.

The two of them quickly vanished leaving Sarah Jane worried that Rani might have just fallen into a trap. She began to wonder if she could follow them as well.

"Sky, I'm going to try to follow them. Stay here and tell Luke what just happened if I don't come back in a few hours," Sarah Jane said.

"Wait! You don't know what you're doing yet. You might wind up anywhere and not be able to come back. Maybe you should try to get the Doctor or Rose to help you. I'll call their numbers," Sky offered.

"I don't think that's going to be a problem, Sky. It doesn't seem to be working anyway. I've been trying to concentrate on a mental picture of Rani to send myself to her and so far nothing's hap . . . ,"Sarah Jane said before she was cut off in mid-sentence as she suddenly vanished.

"No!" Sky screamed in fear.

Sky immediately ran to call the Doctor and almost screamed when she got no answer. Then she called Rose and couldn't get an answer there either.

"That's just great. Even Rose is too busy to answer the phone. I have to get some help," Sky said in a panic.

Then she ran to her mother's list of contacts and smiled as she saw one name in particular. Surely she would answer. She had to.

Meanwhile back on Kali's TARDIS which Kali had hidden so well that not even Discord had found it, Rani and Kali had just appeared in the middle of the medical bay where Kali's original body was hooked up to life support. Rani could see that Kali was near death now, and she tried to switch her consciousness back to her original body. She wasn't sure if she could do this either, but she was going to try.

"Rani, please!" Kali begged in a very weak voice.

"I'm trying. I really am," Rani said in a panic.

Kali actually smiled as she said, "I know. I can see that. It's too bad that we couldn't have been friends. I think we would have liked each other if my mind hadn't started turning on itself. It twisted me, Annika. It made me into someone who I didn't want to be. Now at the end though somehow I feel different. I'm more like my true self than I've been in a long time. I don't know why, but I'm glad. At least I'm going out as me not as that thing that I've become. Tell Ushas that I love her, and I'm sorry. Sorry for everything. I'm so sorry for what I did to you too. Forgive me."

"I do forgive you. I'm sorry. I can't make it work. I'm really trying," Rani said in an upset voice.

"It's not your fault. Don't worry about it. Rani, I have to tell you something before I go. I have to tell you what I found out about the Black Guardian," Kali said.

"What?" Rani asked.

"She never really cared about helping Pandora and Braxiatel. Everything that she did to help them was just meant to keep us focused on them so that we wouldn't discover her real plan. She's up to something far worse than handing over Gallfrey to the Celestial Intervention Agency. She's going to . . . ," Kali said before she suddenly had to stop talking.

Kali couldn't speak anymore as she began to struggle for breath. She reached for Rani's hand for support and Rani squeezed her hand as she tried to heal her current body. She screamed in frustration as she found that she couldn't even do that yet.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Rani said in tears.

Kali smiled at her, and then she died. As soon as she took her last breath, Kali's body instantly disintegrated into dust as Rani watched in horror. Discord had made sure that Kali couldn't regenerate. It must have been some kind of self-destruct sequence placed inside of the genes of the manufactured body that Discord had given to her.

Rani began to start weeping out of control and silently cursed herself for not being able to save Kali. She didn't know what she was going to say to Marissa. She was sure that Marissa wouldn't hate her half as much as she hated herself right now though. She was so filled with guilt and self-loathing that she didn't even notice it when Kali's original body suddenly started moving right next to her.

She almost jumped into the air when she heard Kali say, "So you really do care even after everything that I did to you. You really do have a big heart, Rani Chandra."

"You're alive?" Rani asked in amazement.

"It seems so," Kali said with a warm smile on her face as she started to disconnect herself from the life support system.

"How are you feeling?" Rani asked her in a wary voice as she wondered if Kali was about to attack her at any minute now.

"Pretty good actually. Don't worry. I'm not about to try to kill you again. I feel like me again, Annika. I'm me again. No more insanity!" Kali shouted with joy as she hugged Rani.

Rani was still uncertain if this was a trick or not so she remained hesitant to let her guard down around Kali and would not return the hug. Kali smiled as she said, "I can't blame you. I wouldn't trust me either. I really do feel different though. I can't explain it. I feel like I've been renewed. It's like I have a new chance at life again."

"What were you going to tell me before?" Rani asked.

"About what?" Kali asked with a blank look on her face.

"About Discord's plans," Rani said.

A look of panic came over Kali's face as she said, "I don't remember! I seem to have forgotten as soon as I died. I'm not making this up. I really don't remember."

Rani wasn't sure if she was faking or not, but she decided to take her at her word as she said, "Can we go back to Sarah Jane's house now? I'm sure that she's worried about me."

"Yeah, of course. I hope I still remember how to fly a TARDIS. I wonder if there's anything else that I've forgotten," Kali said with worry in her voice.

"How did you go back to your old body like that? I didn't do it. I tried but I couldn't," Rani said.

"I don't know how. It just happened. One minute I was dying, and the next I was alive again in this body. Don't worry, Rani. I know you tried. I'm not angry at you. I'm not angry at anyone anymore. It's incredible!" Kali said as she swung herself around with a good-natured laugh.

Rani looked at her with a smile. She believed that she was telling the truth now, and she was so happy for her. She couldn't wait to see Marissa's face when she got her sister back. She knew that it was a reunion that Marissa had deserved to have for a very long time now.

As Kali put in the coordinates for Sarah Jane's house, Sarah Jane found herself not on Kali's TARDIS but in a fantastic place filled with blinding bright blue light. It was extremely huge and dazzlingly beautiful there wherever it was. It seemed to stretch on into infinity in all directions as Sarah Jane walked through it trying to discover something that would tell her where she was.

The whole time she kept trying to go back home, but it wasn't working. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't teleport. Sky must be going insane right now she thought to herself. She could only hope that she didn't do something rash as a result.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Sarah Jane called out as she continued to try to find any signs of life in this incredible place.

"I thought that you'd never ask," a voice said behind her.

She turned around to see a young woman all dressed in blue who smiled at her as she said, "Welcome to your new home away from home, Azure Guardian. I was the servant to the old Azure Guardian, and now I'm your servant. My name's Libby. It's short for Equilibrium. Get it?"

"Yeah, I've got it. So this is the dimension of the Azure Guardian?" Sarah Jane asked.

"That's right. It's so very nice to meet you at last, Guardian. I just know that we're going to get along just fine," Libby said happily.

"How did I get here? Do you know how I can go back home?" Sarah Jane asked.

"You brought yourself here by accident I think. You tried teleporting for the first time, right?" Libby asked.

"Yes, that's right," Sarah Jane said as she wondered where Libby was going with this.

"Well, since you're so new to all of this you must have been doing it wrong and were about to end up teleporting into the middle of someplace dangerous instead of your intended destination. There's an automatic failsafe programmed into the teleportation power of all of the new Guardians by Ishtar that prevents them from going somewhere dangerous until they've mastered their powers. It automatically sends them to safety in their own personal pocket dimension instead. That's what must have happened to you. Don't worry though. I'll send you back home," Libby said.

"Thank you, Libby. I appreciate that. It was nice to meet you too. I'll see you around then," Sarah Jane said.

"You certainly will, Sarah Jane. A lot. In fact, very soon you'll be seeing me a whole lot," Libby said with a mischievous grin as she snapped her fingers and sent her new boss back home.

Sarah Jane and Kali's TARDIS both arrived in the living room at the same time right in front of Sky who sighed in relief. She ran to hug Sarah Jane tightly just as Kali and Rani left the TARDIS.

Before Rani could start to explain about what had happened to Kali, she was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Marissa's TARDIS. Marissa rushed out to find Kali standing there with a warm smile on her face.

"Kali? Is it you? I mean really you?" Marissa asked.

"Yes. I don't know how but it's me, Ushas. It's really me!" Kali said as she ran forward and hugged her sister tightly.

The two sisters began to cry with joy even as someone suddenly cleared their throat behind them. Everyone turned to see Ishtar standing there with a huge grin as she said, "I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion, but I just wanted to congratulate you, Kali. Your mind has finally been returned to normal once again."

"What was wrong with it in the first place? I never did know, and neither did the C.I.A. They could never find out why I was so twisted or where my powers came from no matter how many experiments that they ran on me," Kali said.

"You were trying to manifest your powers as a Guardian way too early, and it drove you insane because your Time Lord body couldn't handle it. That's what went wrong. Now that the time is right, you've been reborn into your new form; and your mind is whole again," Ishtar said happily.

"I'm a Guardian too? Why didn't I glow then like Rani and Oswin did when they changed?" Kali asked.

"It's because your old body had already changed. All that it needed was for you to die in your borrowed body to complete the transformation of your mind as well. That was the problem the whole time. Your body changed and your mind didn't until now. That could have caused some memory loss just so you know," Ishtar said.

"Yes, I know. I've already forgotten what the Black Guardian's secret plans are. I really would have liked to remember that. I did die for that information after all," Kali said.

"What?" Marissa asked.

"I'll explain later. I'm fine now though. Don't worry about it. In fact, I'm more than fine. I'm fantastic!" Kali said happily as she kissed her sister's forehead and hugged her again tightly.

"That's a little unnerving to see her all happy like that, isn't it?" Sarah Jane asked.

"It'll take some getting used to for sure," Rani said.

"You'll have to get used to it because you're both going to be working a lot with her. She's an all-new Guardian. There's never been another one like her before. She's the Amethyst Guardian, the Guardian of the Mind and the Psyche," Ishtar said.

"Well, welcome to the club, Kali," Rani said.

"Yes, the club of all-new Guardians who have no idea what they're doing," Sarah Jane joked.

"Thank you. Both of you. I just wish that I remembered what Discord is up to," Kali said with worry on her face.

"Don't worry, Kali. You'll all find out eventually," Ishtar said.

"Yes, when it's almost too late to do anything about it," Rani said.

"Isn't that the way that it usually works though? Why change things now?" Sarah Jane asked with a smile.

**Next: Now that the Guardians have all been revealed at last they all decide to meet together to discuss their new situation minus the Black Guardian of course. Don't think that not having an invite is going to stop her from showing up though.**

**If you're wondering what Kali found out, you'll find out soon enough starting in the next chapter of The Adventures of Rose Tyler, Time Lady and soon afterwards in this title itself as the Black Guardian unleashes a new plan that could potentially change the entire universe forever!**


	18. War Brews in The Air

CHAPTER 18

I do not own Doctor Who or the Sarah Jane Adventures, and I am making no profit off of this.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.**

**This story occurs right after The Adventures of Rose Tyler, Time Lady Chapter 85, but you don't have to read that story in order to understand this one. **

WAR BREWS IN THE AIR

Sarah Jane and Ishtar appeared out of nowhere in Sarah Jane's attic and made Sky jump in fright. She just glared at them as she said, "Don't do that! First Rani and now you two. You're going to make me have a heart attack before I'm twenty."

Rani popped into the attic as if to underscore this point and Sky just rolled her eyes as she said, "Guardians! Are you all this annoying?"

Oswin suddenly appeared now with a major grin on her face as she said, "No, I'm not annoying. Not."

Then she disappeared and reappeared in front of Sky as she continued, "At."

She disappeared again and reappeared to the side of Sky as she finished with a giggle, "All."

"Keep that up, and you'll be the first Guardian in history to be knocked unconscious," Sky said in a very annoyed voice.

"Sorry. I couldn't resist," Oswin said with a laugh as she hugged Sky apologetically.

Sky started to smile as she said, "Okay. Okay. I forgive you. Stop with the hugging already."

"I'm afraid that you're going to have put up with more than just the four of us. The other Guardians are coming too. Well, almost all of them. Discord was definitely not invited," Sarah Jane said.

"How many more?" Sky asked with trepidation.

"Just two," Jenny said as she suddenly appeared alongside of Kali.

Oswin automatically turned on her force field as soon as she saw Kali. She shouted at Sarah Jane, "What's she doing here?!"

Kali looked away from Oswin in shame. She knew that she would react this way when she saw her again, and she couldn't blame her. Not one bit. She deserved this.

"She's a Guardian too now, Oswin. Don't worry. She's changed. She's not the same as she was," Sarah Jane reassured her.

"I don't know if you know it or not, but she killed me not too long ago. I'm not going to stay here and give her another shot at doing that again," Oswin said in an upset voice.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Kali said with tears in her eyes.

Oswin's expression changed as she said, "I remember that you said that to me right before I died too."

"I meant it. I truly am sorry," Kali said with a forlorn expression on her face.

"She was sick, Oswin. She didn't know what she was doing. Her mind was warped because she hadn't finished changing into a Guardian yet," Sarah Jane said.

Then she explained the whole story about what had happened to Kali recently and what they had learned about her including what she had found out and then forgotten about from Discord. Oswin's face softened, but she was still hesitant to let down her force field around Kali.

"I can't believe that I'm saying this after all that she's done to me but give her a chance," Rani said.

"It's okay. I can't blame her. Not at all. Maybe I should just leave. I don't remember anything more than what I already told you anyway," Kali said as she looked away from everyone else. She couldn't even meet the eyes of anyone else in the room.

Oswin was astounded at how different Kali was now. She was acting like a completely different person. She was shy and reserved and looked so unhappy. This was nothing like the woman who had attacked her recently.

Oswin finally came to a decision that she hoped that she didn't regret as she let down her force field and said, "I forgive you."

Kali looked up in surprise as she said, "What?"

"I forgive you. I knew that you were sick even while you were attacking me. You acted as if you were conflicted and in pain," Oswin said.

Kali smiled at her as she said, "Thank you. I promise that I'll never hurt you again, and I'll do everything that I can to make things up to you."

"You don't need to do that. Don't worry about it," Oswin said.

"I want to do it. I'll make it up to you and Rani for everything that I've ever done to both of you. I promise," Kali said.

"Right now we need to focus on the problem with Discord, Kali. Are you sure that you don't remember anything else about her plans?" Sarah Jane asked.

"No. I'm sorry. I don't remember a thing," Kali said.

"She's certainly covered her tracks. That's for sure," Rani said.

"Can't we all just pool our powers together and find out in some way?" Jenny asked.

"Not really. Except for me none of you even know how to use your powers that well anyway," Ishtar said.

"Maybe we could loan them all to you for a minute, and you could find out what she's up to with them," Sarah Jane suggested.

"No, it doesn't work that way. We'll have to wait until all of you have actually developed your powers before we can work together like you're talking about," Ishtar said.

"What about Rose? She knows how to use her powers. I mean she's technically still a Guardian, isn't she? Or is she? She certainly seemed to be using both white and gold energy recently when she knocked Discord away from her after she attacked her. Discord even said something about her not accepting her role yet. Rose never did explain anything about that to me," Sarah Jane said.

"My friend Katarina, who has visions, said something about Mum becoming a Guardian again someday recently. I thought that she wasn't one anymore though," Jenny said in confusion.

Ishtar looked away with an uncomfortable expression on her face and said nothing. It wasn't her place to talk about this.

"Why doesn't Rose help us find out what's going on?" Rani asked.

"She's trying to find out right now along with her friends from what I understand," Sarah Jane said.

"She should be here helping us right now with her powers if she still has them. There's no telling what Discord could be up to," Rani said.

"Hey, I'm sure that Mum is doing everything that she can!" Jenny said in an angry voice.

"I wasn't trying to say anything against her. I just want to make that clear. She did help me recently. I was just saying that even if she's reluctant to be a Guardian that she should get over that and help us. Discord could be doing something awful," Rani said.

"I know that she's doing everything that she possibly can. Rose would never let us down," Sarah Jane said confidently.

Discord suddenly appeared right in the middle of them as she said, "It wouldn't matter even if she did help you. You still wouldn't know anything more about what I'm up to then you do now. You also still wouldn't be able to stop me. None of you even knows how to even begin. By the time you start to figure it out, it will already be too late. This universe will have never even existed, and I'll have my own back again in its place. It will be a universe where I get to live the life that I always wanted. It's the very same life that I tried to give to that little fool who turned out to be nothing but a pale shadow of me. Not that she would have been allowed to keep it for very long anyway. I mainly did that as a way of getting rid of all of you before you developed your powers so that I would have time to think of a way to do what I'm about to do now in order to get my life back. Make no mistake about that, 'Guardians', I will get my life back."

"He doesn't love you, and he never did. He doesn't even like you anymore after everything that you've done," Ishtar said.

"It doesn't matter. Soon none of this will have ever happened anyway, and he won't even have any memory of it or of you," Discord said.

"Excuse me. I just want to understand what we've gotten ourselves into here. So all of this is because of an old feud between you and her over your version of the Doctor?" Sarah Jane asked.

"You act as if it's nothing. To me it's everything. I will have Theta and my daughter back, and I will have the life that I should have had if not for her meddling. If she hadn't been there, then he would be mine," Discord said.

"Really? How do you know that?" Sarah Jane asked.

"She used her powers on him. That's how I know. If she hadn't done that, then he certainly would have fallen for me in time," Discord said.

"In time? Then you mean that he hadn't yet despite your best efforts to get him?" Sarah Jane asked.

"That was because of her. It had to be. She used her Vortex powers on him to make him fall in love with her. She made him like her instead of me. If I had the chance to go after him again though without her around then I would certainly get him. All I have to do is restart the clock and eliminate her from the universe once and for all. Then everything will be as it should be," Discord said.

"I didn't do anything to him. We fell in love that's all that happened. He loved me not you. Was that so hard to comprehend?" Ishtar asked in disbelief.

Sarah Jane turned on Discord and her eyes blazed with anger as she said, "It is for her. She's delusional. She can't accept that anyone else could gain what she couldn't, and it's been eating away at her ever since. She's small and petty and obviously has a massive ego that would completely collapse if it ever had to face up to the truth. The truth about her own inadequacy."

"Go, Sarah Jane!" Rani said with pride.

Discord glared at Sarah Jane as she said, "You're next on my list, Miss Smith, right after Rose Tyler and this so-called Ishtar here. I'll humiliate and destroy you all just before I wipe you and everything that you've ever known out of existence forever. You'll never even know what hit you."

"Shut up! You're not doing anything to anybody," Kali said as her eyes glowed with power.

Discord's smile was quickly wiped from her face as she felt her mind being invaded by Kali. She could feel her trying to find out what she was up to.

"Oh, no you don't," Discord said as she forcibly cast Kali out of her mind and sealed it off from her.

Sarah Jane wondered if she could cancel Discord's powers like she had Rose's earlier when she wanted to go attack Cassandra O'Brien after she won the election for Prime Minister. She quickly touched her shoulder just as she had Rose's and willed her mental shields to suddenly open up to Kali's power. Discord laughed at her as her power seemed to have no effect on her.

"You're still too new to this, Miss Smith. You don't have the ability to override my powers just yet. I'm much more powerful than you can possibly imagine," Discord said.

"One day I will be able to stop you then? Is that what you're afraid of? Is that why you're really trying to erase our timeline? Is it because you know that we're going to be able to keep you from doing whatever you want to soon given enough time?" Sarah Jane asked.

"You're not going to live long enough to gain enough control of your powers to stop me, Miss Smith. You're all going to die before you can become a threat to me. It ends here!" Discord said as she grabbed Sarah Jane by the neck just as she had Rose earlier.

She was quickly surprised though when Sarah Jane used Venusian Aikido to yank her off of her and throw her against the wall. Sarah Jane smiled at her as she said, "I learned that from the Doctor. That just proves that I don't necessarily need a lot of power to defend myself from you."

"It's too bad for you that I can do so much worse to you than to merely strangle you. Good bye, Miss Smith," Discord said as she began to glow with dark energy.

Sarah Jane began to scream as her body started to be ripped apart by Discord's power. Ishtar and the others tried to help her, but Discord easily held them in check because she was too evenly matched with Ishtar and way too powerful for the others to stop her just yet.

It seemed as if Sarah Jane was doomed until the one person who Discord forgot about had had enough.

"Get away from my mother!" Sky shouted as she blasted Discord with what her original mother, Miss Myers, had once described as the fury of a supernova.

Sky had finally decided to reveal that her powers had returned long ago. When Rose had removed the essence of the Trickster from her as a matter of fact, not that Sky remembered that. All that she remembered was that her powers had returned one day out of the blue, and she had kept them a carefully guarded secret ever since. Until now.

Sky's powers in themselves would normally never have been enough to hurt Discord on their own but together with the powers of Ishtar and the other Guardians they were enough to tip the scales over in their favor. Discord quickly released Sarah Jane as she was now the one to be writhing in agony under the combined firepower of all of the Guardians and Sky combined.

Luckily for Discord, the Valeyard's TARDIS suddenly materialized in the attic. He quickly ran out of it with a demat gun and blasted Ishtar with it. Ishtar was powerful enough to resist its effects to erase her from time but in order to do so she had to stop her attack on Discord. This gave Discord the opening that she needed to break away and teleport herself to safety.

"She might have gotten away, but you won't," Rani said as she ran toward the Valeyard to pin him down.

"Always have a back-up plan in place, my dear. That's my motto," the Valeyard said as he made no move to run away.

The Valeyard grinned as Discord returned the favor and teleported him and his TARDIS away to safety before the Guardians could retaliate against him. Rani growled in frustration because she had almost reached him.

"You should have known that was going to happen," Oswin said with a grin.

"Yeah, I should have. He was too unconcerned about getting caught. Now we'll never find out what she was up to. All we know is that somehow she wants to turn back time, but we still don't know how she's going to do it," Rani said with disgust.

"We'll figure it out eventually. Rose is already on it right now. We just have to hope that she can put a stop to her whatever she has planned. We certainly can't yet. We just don't have enough power. And speaking of power, when were you going to tell me about yours, young lady?" Sarah Jane asked.

"You're not much older than me nowadays," Sky said with a grin.

"Why didn't you say something?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I wasn't planning on ever using them again that's why, and I haven't until now. I have no use for them. Plus I didn't want you or anyone else to be worried about me. I know that I was supposed to be a living bomb originally," Sky said.

"Could you check on that, Ishtar?" Sarah Jane asked.

"I already did. She's fine. She's in no danger whatsoever. She has complete control over her powers now," Ishtar said.

"You knew?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Of course I did. I knew from the moment I saw her. Someday you'll be able to do things like that too," Ishtar said.

"Someday's not soon enough. We need to get better trained than this before Discord decides to show up to kill us again," Rani complained.

"She won't be coming back anytime soon as long as we have Sky around I don't think," Sarah Jane said as she smiled proudly at her daughter.

"If she shows up here again, I'll blast her into atoms," Sky agreed in anger.

"I still think that we need to do something. We can't just leave it all up to Rose," Rani said.

"Yes, you do need to do something. You need to start training. We need to be at full strength to take Discord on the next time that she decides to strike. I have just the person in mind to train you too," Ishtar said with a grin as she snapped her fingers.

Libby appeared and said with a warm smile, "I was beginning to think that no one would ever call on me."

"Who is that?" Rani asked in surprise.

"She's my servant I think. Not that I need a servant," Sarah Jane said embarrassed.

"No, you don't need a servant. What you need is a trainer, and that's me," Libby said proudly.

"Trainer?" Sarah Jane asked in surprise.

"Libby knows all about how Guardian powers work. She's been working for the Azure Guardian since the beginning of the current universe. If anyone can train you and the others to become experts at your powers, she can. That's what you need to do, Sarah Jane. You and the others need to go to the dimension of the Azure Guardian and train in the use of your powers there. Don't come back until you're ready to use them," Ishtar said.

"What about the Earth? Someone needs to defend it from alien invasions. For that matter, what about Sky? I can't leave her alone," Sarah Jane said worried.

"I'm almost grown, and I have powers. I think I can take care of myself," Sky complained as she put her hands on her hips.

"She'll worry about you like that when you're forty, Sky. That's her job as a mother," Rani said with a grin.

Sarah Jane looked at her in surprise as she said, "You said that like someone who knows."

Rani's smile faded somewhat but not completely as she said nothing. Sarah Jane knew when to leave things alone and decided not to press the matter any further.

"I think that Maria can take care of protecting the Earth from Bannerman Road for a while, don't you think? As for Sky, Luke and Clyde can watch her for a while. Lady Jane can watch over Henry for Rani. They'll all be alright. I'm sure of it," Ishtar said.

"She's right. They'll be fine. Come with me. I'll whip you into shape in no time and bring you back before you know it," Libby said.

"Well, I suppose so. I guess it would be alright. For a little while," Sarah Jane said hesitantly.

"I'll let Maria and the others know what's going on. I'll even stick around a while to make sure everything's alright. Don't you worry about anything," Ishtar said.

"Well, let's go then," Sarah Jane said as she felt a little better about things now.

"Right. Let's get ready for some training then," Libby said as she suddenly changed into a Marine Drill Sergeant's outfit complete with a whistle.

She blew the whistle and shouted in a commanding voice, "Let's go, soldiers. Move! Move!"

The Guardians all looked at each other in alarm as they disappeared along with Libby. Even as they left, Sky and Ishtar could hear Rani say, "Suddenly I'm not so sure about this, Sarah Jane."

Ishtar and Sky both laughed at them, and from the wink that Ishtar gave her Sky was pretty sure that Libby was not going to be the pushover that she had seemed to be when she had first appeared. Poor Rani! Sky thought to herself with amusement.

**Next: As Sarah Jane, Rani, and the other Guardians receive the boot camp version of Guardian training from Libby, the rest of the Bannerman Road Gang suddenly find themselves caught up in a major emergency their first day on the job without Sarah Jane. Can Maria, Clyde, and Luke hold things together by themselves?**


End file.
